smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) (04/30/84)
The Supreme Court has just issued a ruling in the libel suit filed by Bose against Consumer Union. The decision, which upheld CU, turned more on a legal point than on the facts of the case. In 1970, CU published a report that said that the sound from a Bose speaker "tended to wander about the room". A federal judge ruled that that statement was false and disparaging, noting that a CU employee had testified that the wandering sounds were confined to a few feet from the speakers. He awarded Bose $211K. An appeals court threw out the verdict, saying "We are unable to find clear and convincing evidence that CU published the statement that individual instruments tended to wander about the room with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. "CU is guilty of using imprecise language in the article, perhaps resulting from an attempt to produce a readable article for its mass audience. Certainly this does not support an inference of actual malice." Bose appealed this ruling, claiming (among other things) that the appeals court should not have the power to set aside a libel ruling on factual grounds. The Supreme Court disagreed by a 6-3 vote, holding that such appellate review was essential to protect the First Amendment rights of the media. They also upheld the specific finding that CU's article did not stem from actual malice.