Mother Jones magazine is standing behind the article that spawned a defamation lawsuit filed Tuesday by 
Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot (pictured in Wikipedia photo). VanderSloot is seeking $74,999 in damages for portions of the article portraying him as anti-gay and a Twitter post calling him “(Mitt) Romney’s gay-bashing friend.” Mother Jones Co-Editor in Chief Monika Bauerlein was named as a defendant along with reporter Stephanie Mencimer and the magazine itself. Though Bauerlein hadn’t had a chance Thursday to review the 86-page lawsuit, she said to expect the magazine to fight the suit in court instead of settling. “We’re really confident about our reporting,” Bauerlein said/Zach Kyle, Twin Falls Times News. More here.
Question: Do you expect a fight to the finish re: this lawsuit?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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