A 139-year-old newspaper shuts down after paying $1.1m for made-up mayor stories
3 weeks, 2 days ago

A 139-year-old newspaper shuts down after paying $1.1m for made-up mayor stories

The Independent  

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The settlement, announced Monday, ended a defamation suit originally filed in 2021, in which DeMaria accused the Leader Herald’s publisher and editor, Joshua Resnek, and owner, Mathew Philbin, of regularly putting out articles they knew to be false. “Each week, 52 times a year, I invent the Leader Herald … The mayor is my enemy … It takes me two days away from important writing every week to create this s***,” Resnek wrote in one email included in court documents, according to Boston.com. “It will be very hard to find either local paper writing anything that isn’t pro-mayor or pro-administration,” Everett resident Paula Sterite told WGBH this week. “We’re stuck with propaganda.” Observers said the case was a textbook example of defamation, which relies on showing an individual had “actual malice” in deliberately spreading false information that damages someone’s reputation.

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