Melaleuca and its CEO, Frank VanderSloot, have filed a defamation action against The Foundation for National Progress, which owns Mother Jones news magazine.
In a news release, Melaleuca said the move comes because the magazine “engaged in a malicious and reckless effort to damage VanderSloot’s reputation as a private citizen, businessman, philanthropist, and entrepreneur through the publication and promotion of several defamatory falsehoods” in early 2012 because VanderSloot had made a “sizable donation” to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
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“By ignoring repeated requests for a meaningful retraction or correction of the misinformation, the defendants proved their intent to distort the public record, to undermine public confidence in Melaleuca, and to create economic harm for VanderSloot, as well as to Melaleuca, its employees and its independent marketing executives,” according to the Melaleuca news release. “Failure to correct the falsehoods originated by the defendants have caused them to be repeated by countless other organizations, publications and blogs.”
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“I support freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but regardless of their political leanings, publications have the responsibility to base their commentary in fact, not fabrication,” VanderSloot said. “The press has no right to publish falsehoods about people they seek to destroy just because they disagree with them. In the complaint, we've limited the damages we are seeking because this suit is not about money. We’re asking the justice system to correct the false public record, and to hold the press accountable for their falsehoods and to help spare future citizens from this sort of intentional, malicious harm.”
Calling people Gay Bashers is the new way to call them Racists. Its the slur du jour so to speak.
That was back in January. Mother Jones filed a motion to suppress the suit.
Friday, a judge denied that motion.
(IDAHO FALLS, ID) – A state judge has given the OK for a lawsuit by Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot against Mother Jones magazine to continue. Attorneys for the Idaho businessman will now be able to question four employees of the national magazine in an effort to assist in helping to determine jurisdiction in VanderSloot’s defamation suit. Judge Darla Williamson in Boise made the decision filed earlier this month in Bonneville County. Depositions will be taken from the following magazine employees: reporter Stephanie Mencimer, editor Monika Bauerlein, CEO Madeleine Buckingham, and Robert Wise, the magazine’s online technology director.
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