Lansdowne v. Beacon Journal Publishing Co.

I respectfully dissent from the plurality’s decision to overrule the law as stated in Embers Supper Club, Inc. v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1984), 9 Ohio St. 3d 22, 9 OBR 115, 457 N.E. 2d 1164, and to replace it with a new rule requiring a defamed private figure to prove negligence on the part of the publisher by clear and convincing evidence, rather than by a preponderance of the evidence. I cannot agree with this unique proposition, which reaches well beyond the requirements of the First Amendment and provides additional protection to a publisher of defamatory falsehood, at the…