Washington Biz Journal sued for defamation

A D.C. Council candidate has filed a defamation lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court against the Washington Business Journal and its former reporter, Alex Koma, who is now City Paper’s Loose Lips columnist, reports Mitch Ryals of City Paper.

Ryals reports, “It’s unclear from Orange’s complaint what statements Orange alleges are defamatory. But in an emailed statement to City Paper, Orange cites a 2021 article, written by Koma and published in WBJ, 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.’ Orange alleges in the email that the statement is a ‘bold face lie.’

“WBJ Editor in Chief Vandana Sinha says the publication has not been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment further. Koma, in a bit of an awkward conversation with his new editors, also declined to comment.”

Read more here.

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.