Say that the memos are indeed a hoax. Could CBS be civilly liable in various ways? A bunch of readers asked me this, so I’ll try to answer, in several posts. (Please note that I’m getting even more than the usual amount of e-mail on these issues, so some will end up being discarded, or put on the back burner where it will cogneal into a grimy mental mush that I’ll eventually throw in the sink rather than trying to rescue and turn into something edible.)
First, as to shareholder lawsuits, I can free ride off the work of others who are much more knowledgeable than I am. My friend and colleague Professor Bainbridge, who is a leading corporate law expert, has all about this. Short answer: CBS will win on this, and it should win on it — do you really want to have huge lawsuits every time someone claims (rightly or wrongly) that some media outlet botched a story?
[NOTE: After posting this post and the three that now appear below, I reordered them so they make more sense when read from top to bottom.]
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