Golfer suing Bloomberg News for defamation over photo

Michael McCann of Sportico reports about professional golfer Patrick Reed’s defamation lawsuit against Bloomberg News over the use of a photo of him with a story.

McCann reports, “Reed maintains Bloomberg’s photo selection was part of a ‘concerted scheme to defame, smear, and harm anyone associated with LIV.’ Reed was one of the first golfers to sign with LIV and, his court documents say, he ‘remains one of its top stars and prominent golfers domestically and worldwide.’ Reed argues Bloomberg and other media are ‘driven by the thirst for clicks, views, attention, and therefore substantial profit’ and see ‘cozying up to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour’ as an opportunistic strategy.

“The photo, Reed argues, ‘creates the entirely false implication’ that ‘through his alleged work’ for Saudi Arabia, he is ‘complicit in trying to get data on 9/11 families and thus harm them–an utterly despicable and disgusting charge.’ As Reed sees it, the photo was ‘intended to and did in fact create the strong implication and impression that [he] was personally involved in ‘sinister’ activities to harm 9/11 families.’

“In a motion to dismiss filed in April, Bloomberg categorically rejects Reed’s portrayal. The media company stresses that Reed isn’t mentioned or even hinted at in the story. It also maintains the author’s use of ‘sinister turn’ clearly referred to a portrayal of the ‘feud between LIV and PGA’ and had nothing to do with Reed. The story, Bloomberg further holds, is fully accurate and presents ‘competing perspectives’ in a ‘neutral manner.'”

Read more here.