Drinks are on Kevin Doyle, publisher of the Pensacola News Journal. The Florida Supreme Court refused to recognize “false-light” invasion of privacy as grounds to sue. It upheld a lower-court ruling that tossed out an $18.3 million judgment against the Pensacola News Journal and its parent company, Gannett Co. Inc.
The case involved a series of articles on Joe Anderson, owner of Anderson Columbia, by Amie Streater. Anderson accidentally killed his estranged wife while hunting. He claimed that the PNJ article insinuated that he had murdered her. A Pensacola jury agreed that the articles put Anderson in a “false light” and awarded the huge judgment.