Categories: Media News

Defamation lawsuit against Washington Biz Journal is dismissed

A District of Columbia Council candidate’s defamation lawsuit against the Washington Business Journal and one of its former reporters has been dismissed.

Heidi Pasichow, a judge in D.C. Superior Court, issued the ruling on Aug. 18.

Candidate Vincent Orange filed a defamation lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court against the Business Journal and its former reporter, Alex Koma. Orange cited a 2021 article, written by Koma that reported “a variety of prominent financial backers also abandoned the Chamber during Orange’s tenure, according to internal documents the Washington Business Journal obtained last year.”

Koma is now a reporter with City Paper.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.