Flaming Libel

In search of an issue relevant to libel, I was fairly confident that I could rely on the news source from my previous posting, Rolling Stone. I didn’t need to peruse the magazine’s Web site for more than a minute before I discovered an article that just might do the trick.
In the magazine’s “Smoking Section” on Wednesday, reporter Austin Scaggs composed an exclusive article called Wayne Coyne Tears Apart Arcade Fire. In this story, Flaming Lips frontman, Coyne, sounds off about what he considers a “pompous” attitude on part of Arcade Fire.
He includes in his tirade that the band members “treat people like shit,” including their traveling crew and even their fans. He drives the point home by saying, “they treat everybody in their vicinity like shit.” These acerbic remarks go on to include numerous expletives as Coyne becomes emphatic about Arcade Fire’s arrogant attitude.
As we discussed in class, the good people of Rolling Stone have less to worry about in terms of being sued for libel because Arcade Fire’s members are considered public figures because of their prominence in the music world. Additionally, Rolling Stone covers itself by contacting the band’s publicist, even though this conversation only entailed a refusal to comment. This clears the magazine of “reckless disregard for the truth” because they attempted to contact the target of the verbal assaults instead of simply printing the information without further action.
If Arcade Fire chose to sue for libel, they would certainly have three of the five points of libel covered. These remarks were obviously published, and the band was identified. These comments, if taken seriously, would cause harm to the band’s reputation. Who wants to attend the show of a band who “treats the audience like shit?” The main issues here are falsity and fault through actual malice, because the band, as previously stated, falls under the category of public figures.
While I cannot conceive of a way in which the defendant could prove that the band treated basically everyone and everything “like shit,” there may be a case for actual malice because of the nature of Coyne’s remarks.
Whether libelous or not, these remarks may have touched a nerve with Arcade Fire, who recently fired a retaliation against the Flaming Lips on their website.