George E. Stevens

Contractual Offers in Advertising

Advertisements are not normally considered a binding contract, but this summary of recent cases finds that when there is “commitment,” and no error in the advertisement, the seller may have to pay up. Copy writers should be cautious in using such words as “guarantee” and “offer.” Advertisers can revoke one advertisement with another one in the same mass medium.

Mass Media and the ‘Libel-Proof’ Doctrine

Evidence of a plaintiffs bad reputation has been admissible to mitigate a damage award for defamation but has not been a bar to the recovery of at least nominal damages.! Under common law, courts reasoned that “even a man with an evil history is entitled to protection against false charges-indeed he may need such protection more than one of unsullied name.”2 In 1975, however, the “libel-proof plaintiff‘ doctrine was established in Cardillo v. Doubleday 8 Co., Inc.3 There, a prisoner sentenced to 21 years for assorted federal offenses, including conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen securities, brought suit over allegations that he also had participated in a robbery and attempted to fix a horse race. In a brief opinion, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that if the allegations were false the plaintiff was “unlikely by virture of his life as a habitual criminal to . . . recover anything other than nominal damages.” Therefore, he was found libel-proof as a matter of law and the complaint was dismissed for constitutional reasons. After Cardillo. other courts also concluded that under the First Amendment a plaintiff with a severely damaged reputation “is not entitled to burden a defendant with a trial in which the most favorable result . . . is an award of nominal damages.”4 Decisions favoring the libel-proof doctrine have been premised on the belief

‘Official Conduct’ and the Actual Malice Rule

Organization theorists in public relations might find it useful to distinguish between participative vs. authoritative environments in conducting research and building theory. I t is important, for example, to determine which of the four public relations models described by Grunig and others are most likely to be used by practitioners in the two different environment types. This and earlier research suggests that the press agentryl publicity or the two-way asymmetric models would be used in an authoritative environment, while the public information or two-way symmetric models would be used in a participative environment. It also is important to investigate the relationship of the four public relations models to the organizational constraints examined in this research. Theoretically, one would expect that practitioners who work for organizations that have adopted the press agentryl publicity model would labor under more constraints than those who work for organizations that have adopted the two-way symmetric model.

Unauthorized Use of a Newspaper's Name

When viewed as a whole, there is little doubt that what the American public saw in these photographs helped to create an image of an awesome German military force that was capable of swift and decisive action. This perspective was to some extent controlled by the Germans themselves, given the fact that 101 of 164 photographs in this study were identified as being either provided by a German source or cleared by a German censor. In spite of this perspective, however, these photographs were valuable, for they provided the American public with a unique opportunity to watch the world turn to war.

Legal Protection for a Magazine Article Idea

Although many free-lancers think that magazine editors routinely “steal” ideas for article topics from query letters and manuscripts, such thievery is said to be rare.’ Nevertheless, ideas sometimes are taken from rejected queries and articles, and it has been commonly believed that “there is no legal recourse for a writer who feels that a magazine has stolen his article idea.”* Often, no legal protection may be available for an idea. But a recent New York case, Werlin v. ReaderS Digest Association, Inc.,3 shows that in some circumstances a writer who believes that his idea has been stolen may successfully seek monetary damages. The plaintiff, a Texas free-lancer, had written an article on Rina Cahana, a girl afflicted with Down’s Syndrome who overcame physical and mental problems to have a Bas Mitzvah religious ceremony. In November 1978, after the article was published in Houston’s Legal Advocate, Werlin submitted a copy to Reader’s Digest (RDA) for possible republication. An editor there decided that the manuscript contained “the kernel of a darned good story” but was too poorly written to be republished, so she recommended to a superior that it be given to another writer for development into a publishable piece. Eventually, the idea was assigned to Joseph P. Blank, an RDA“roving editor” who did his own research and wrote “The Triumph of Rina Cahana” for the magazine’s March 1980 issue. Werlin protested and was sent a

Media Incitement: The ‘Born Innocent’ Case

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THE LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION AS A PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION

2.7% who “never” use them. Only 13.5% said they take editorial stands on issues “often,” as compared with 24.3% who d o so “occasionally,” 27% who d o so ”seldom,”and 35.1% who never take them. The use of new journalism appears to be a more likely trend in city magazines than the use of editorials. Most (84.9%) agreed (66.7%) or strongly agreed (18.2%) that greater use of new journalism techniques in handling local issues is a trend. Most (82.4%) disagreed (76.5%) o r strongly disagreed (5.9%) that there is a trend toward greater use of traditional tools such as editorials in handling local issues. All city magazines together devote approximately one-fourth (23.2%) of their space to public affairs reporting and commentary, but the amount varies greatly with the magazine. Some such as the Washingtonian, St. Louis, and Atlanta. devote more than half of their space; some devote little or none. Principle article topics in the year preceding the survey included education, used by 83.8%; energy and health, each 75.7%; transportation, 67.6%: planningzoning, 59.5%; civic reform and crime, each 51.4%; government reform, 40.5%; human rights, 37.7%; and inflation, 35.1%. Civic reform and transportation, each 13.5%, were the only topics that had been subjects of editorials by as many as 10% of the city magazines during the previous year. Civic reform. 24.3%. and education and energy, each 21.6%. were the principal topics for columns, and civic reform, education and health, each 18.9%. were the principal topics of letter writers.