MMC 3200 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4.3: Jack Kevorkian
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150: defamation: communication that holds a person up to contempt, hatred, ridicule, a communication that damages the reputation of a person, but not necessarily the i(cid:374)dividual"s (cid:272)hara(cid:272)ters. Your character is what you are, your reputation is what people think. The law only protects reputation; pleading loss of self-esteem is not enough: to be actionable defamation, the words must actually damage a reputation; there must be proof offered that reputation was harmed. The plaintiff must have evidence of damaged reputation. Proof of damage (especially something as abstract as reputation) is an elusive task. (cid:862)li(cid:271)el proof(cid:863): a (cid:272)lai(cid:373) that a perso(cid:374) is (cid:374)ot eligi(cid:271)le for further da(cid:373)agi(cid:374)g their reputation. Ex: dr. jack kevorkian; notorious for assisting patients in suicide (pg. The most common variety of libel-proof candidates tend to be convicted criminals: at least a sig(cid:374)ifi(cid:272)a(cid:374)t (cid:373)i(cid:374)ority of the (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)u(cid:374)ity (cid:373)ust (cid:271)elieve that the plai(cid:374)tiff"s reputation has been damaged, but the minority must not be unrepresentative.
