A jury has awarded $10MM to a Greene County man, ruling that WVIR wrongly reported that cocaine had been found on his property. In early 2001, Jesse Sheckler’s home was raided, and he was charged with helping to finance a drug dealer. He was eventually acquitted, but WVIR incorreclty reported repeatedly in the interim that cocaine had been found. Sheckler sued, claiming defamation. WVIR intends to appeal. The AP has the story. 05/27 Update: Liesel Nowak has a way better story in the Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
four six and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Someone is definitely lying here, and I’m torn between the ex-reporter and the government man who stands to be in some serious hot water.
My question though: $10,000,000? I didn’t see anything in the article about punitive damages, and I wonder just how that amount was arrived at.
That greene county man will surely make $10,000,000 in a normal year if people didn’t think he had cocaine in his house. DUH!
The irony? Now that he does have 10 mil, he’ll definitly have cocaine in his house. After all, cocaine is god’s way of telling you you have too much money.
Lets hope this bankrupts WVIR, then we can get NBC on our satellite dishes without having to beg and plead.
As much as I despise WVIR, I would think that they would win an appeal.
Jurors are stupid — that’s the point, right?
Anyway, just see below for how stupid they are.
… big time! The AP version you posted is the truncated version. Check the Progress story, written by the lovely and talented Liesel Nowak. It contains this part, which the AP drones have trimmed out:
‘Further, Pagel and his legal assistant both testified that Semadeni came to the U.S. Attorney’s office seeking a copy of the indictment against Sheckler, lied in order to obtain the case file and eventually broke down and cried in Pagel’s office when the prosecutor confronted her about the subterfuge.
But Friday, former Daily Progress reporter Keri Schwab testified that she, not Semadeni, was the reporter who had the tearful meeting with Pagel and his assistant. Schwab left the paper in June 2002.
“First and foremost, this is a case of mistaken identity,” said Thomas Albro, attorney for Virginia Broadcasting Corp., which owns WVIR-TV. Albro added that the plaintiff attempted to vilify Semadeni with accusations of deceit.
Daily Progress Managing Editor Lou Hatter said the newspaper was unaware of the incident recounted in Schwab’s testimony. He said the paper strives to uphold the highest ethical standards in its newsgathering and reporting and neither approved nor condones Schwab’s actions as described in her testimony.’
OK, JMZ back here with analysis:
1) Keri Schwab is one of the worst reporters to work at the Progress in years. There’s a good reason she’s a social worker now.
2) This is a pretty important point. Melinda was being accused not only of being incompetent (which, of course, she is) but of being malicious. They were saying she lied and cheated to get the story *in reckless disregard of the truth*. That’s what’s called "actual malice," and while it doesn’t come into play when the subject of the story is a private figure, it still makes a reporter look very bad. But the thing is, Melinda didn’t do any of that bad stuff — Keri Schwab did! So Melinda, then, is merely incompetent, not malicious. Keri, meanwhile, is both.
God, I freakin’ love this story.
I like WVIR’s news director. Everybody does. He is a very nice person. But between ignoring repeated requests for a story correction, and all but ignoring TWO impending tornadoes–I think it is time for WVIR to reflect on whether their news broadcasts are ignoring just a tad too much.
I couldn’t find the story on the Progress’ site, and sifting through Google News (which archives Progress stories) didn’t bear fruit, either. Do you have a link, so that I can change from the AP story?
I hope that this works. If not, the page is listed on the second page of local stories.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031769649974&path=!news
Weird. I had the link emailed to me. Just to save people some trouble, here’s the entire story:
WVIR-TV loses $10 million defamation suit
By Liesel Nowak / Daily Progress staff writer
May 24, 2003
A Charlottesville jury on Friday found that local television station WVIR-TV (Channel 29) defamed a Greene County man in its reporting of a federal drug case in 2001. The jurors then awarded him $10 million in compensation.
The verdict is the culmination of a two-year dispute between Stanardsville resident Jesse Sheckler, 52, and the NBC affiliate over news stories in which a WVIR reporter incorrectly reported that authorities had confiscated cocaine at Sheckler’s residence.
Matthew Murray, who represented Sheckler in the civil suit in Charlottesville Circuit Court, had requested the $10 million award and seemed unsurprised at the jury’s decision. Sheckler, his wife and two daughters all burst into tears when the verdict was announced.
“The amount is entirely justified to the extent of damages suffered by Mr. Sheckler,” Murray said. “It is a damn shame when a man has to sue to get an incorrect story retracted. I hope this sends a message to the media to respect the rights of the little man.”
WVIR wrongly reported in news stories on April 6, April 7, Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, 2001, that authorities found cocaine during a raid on Sheckler’s home and business. No drugs ever were confiscated from Sheckler’s property.
Sheckler, who operates an automotive garage behind his home on Pea Ridge Road, had been indicted, arrested and tried on a federal charge that he helped finance convicted drug dealer Samuel Rose. Sheckler had loaned between $37,000 and $47,000 to Rose in 1999 to help Rose finance a construction project. Sheckler said he knew nothing of the drug business when he agreed to the loan, and he eventually was acquitted.
Melinda Semadeni, the reporter who first covered the Sheckler case for WVIR, testified that assistant U.S. attorney Bruce Pagel was her source for the information that was reported about a drug bust at Sheckler’s home. Pagel denied telling Semadeni of the seizure.
Further, Pagel and his legal assistant both testified that Semadeni came to the U.S. Attorney’s office seeking a copy of the indictment against Sheckler, lied in order to obtain the case file and eventually broke down and cried in Pagel’s office when the prosecutor confronted her about the subterfuge.
But Friday, former Daily Progress reporter Keri Schwab testified that she, not Semadeni, was the reporter who had the tearful meeting with Pagel and his assistant. Schwab left the paper in June 2002.
“First and foremost, this is a case of mistaken identity,” said Thomas Albro, attorney for Virginia Broadcasting Corp., which owns WVIR-TV. Albro added that the plaintiff attempted to vilify Semadeni with accusations of deceit.
Daily Progress Managing Editor Lou Hatter said the newspaper was unaware of the incident recounted in Schwab’s testimony. He said the paper strives to uphold the highest ethical standards in its newsgathering and reporting and neither approved nor condones Schwab’s actions as described in her testimony.
Murray told the six-woman, one-man jury that WVIR did not retract the report, despite calls from Sheckler’s criminal attorney, who brought attention to the inaccuracy in Semadeni’s report.
Sheckler contended that the report, viewed by thousands of people, ruined his reputation in the community and caused him physical stress, including broken teeth, which required a root canal.
Albro argued it was impossible to determine that stress Sheckler experienced since 2001 was the result of the WVIR report and that his indictment, arrest and criminal trial likely brought on the emotional burden. In a taped deposition, Sheckler broke down in tears when asked how he explained his arrest to his wife and daughters.
Albro declined to comment on the $10 million award.
“The judge gave us 21 days to make a motion to set aside the verdict, and we will do that,” Albro said.
…where will the $10 million come from? Fewer reporters? Even less on-site reporting? Higher fees for advertising? They spend no money now. Should we look for WVIR to be purchased soon?
$10M is, I speculate, a greater financial burden than WVIR can bear. If they’re smart, they have media liability insurance, but I’d be surprised if they had more than $3M in coverage; $1M is more likely. Short of insurance covering this, or the amount being reduced on appeal, this award may put WVIR’s future in jeopardy.
First, I can’t imagine that the $10M figure will survive. Large jury awards rarely do in libel cases, and getting out of them is pretty much the one thing that media lawyers get paid the big bucks for. Besides, the jury apparently pulled the dollar amount out of its collective ass, so I’d have to think it will be reduced.
Second, and way more creepy, consider this quote from a recent (I don’t have the date) NY Times story:
"Any of the places where we have a newspaper, we’d like to have a TV station," said J. Stewart Bryan III, the chairman and chief executive of Media General, which owns more than four dozen newspapers and television stations, including The Tampa Tribune and that city’s WFLA. "Any of the places we have a TV station, we’d like to have a newspaper."
Subject to FCC approval, those evil bastards just might be able to come out of this with an even more exclusive monopoly than they’ve already got. If the pattern holds (this is known as "convergence" and is a pretty hotly debated issue in media circles), they’d take the opportunity to skimp even more on costs and reduce the quality of news you get even further. And yes, that is possible.
It’s VERY possible – perhaps even likely. But don’t expect any of our area’s congressional representatives to do anything about it – the pending FCC move is a 100% Republican idea. Besides, Senators Allen and Warner are much too busy trying to throw their weight around influencing college athletics to bother with something as trivial as this.
How is it possible that important information about this case is STILL being mis-reported more than two years after Sheckler first made news?
This time, no one can blame Channel 29. It was The Daily Progress that screwed up.
On May 24th, the day after the defamation trial ended, The Progress ran an article with two huge mistakes in it.
The article’s author, the lovely and talented Liesel Nowak (as JizzMasterZero calls her), wrote that Sheckler’s home and business were raided by federal authorities. Actually, that never happened.
Even worse, she wrote that Sheckler loaned money to "convicted drug dealer Samuel Rose."
Oops. Rose hadn’t even been arrested when Sheckler loaned him money.
Was Liesel using Keri Schwab’s notes?
And by the way…when did The Progress run a correction? Not on Sunday, the day after the article appeared. Not on Monday…or even Tuesday.
Finally, on Wednesday a correction was published. It ran in tiny print in the corner of page A3, where nobody actually looks. Do you think Samuel Rose was looking?
Not only is The Progress’ staff incompetent. It’s plain pathetic.
Ms. Sheckler,
Congratulations on the big award, but don’t you think this is getting a little silly?
The full Progress story is in one of the links above. I’d be interested in having you point out where it claims the house was raided. These are the only parts that even come close, as far as I can see:
1) “… over news stories in which a WVIR reporter incorrectly reported that authorities had confiscated cocaine at Sheckler’s residence.”
So, TV reported that they confiscated cocaine in a raid. The report was incorrect. The story says that. No problem here.
2) “WVIR wrongly reported in news stories on April 6, April 7, Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, 2001, that authorities found cocaine during a raid on Sheckler’s home and business. No drugs ever were confiscated from Sheckler’s property.”
Again, TV reported that authorities found cocaine during a raid. Wrongly. Sounds good to me too, so far. It says it right there: Reports of a raid that turned up cocaine were wrong. It also says: “No drugs were ever confiscated.” Jeez.
3) “Melinda Semadeni, the reporter who first covered the Sheckler case for WVIR, testified that assistant U.S. attorney Bruce Pagel was her source for the information that was reported about a drug bust at Sheckler’s home. Pagel denied telling Semadeni of the seizure.”
So, Melinda Semadeni says Pagel was the source of the (incorrect, as noted in the story) information that was reported about a drug bust. Pagel says he didn’t tell Semadeni about the (nonexistent, as noted in the story) seizure. I’m sorry, but this seems accurate too. Melinda says Pagel told her about a bust. Pagel says he didn’t. That’s the gist of the case, right? How is this anything but descriptive of what went on in the courtroom?
So … Could the writing have been a little clearer in here? Yeah, sure, maybe. Is this a “huge mistake”? I guess I just don’t see it. But look: It’s late at night where I am and maybe I’m missing the smoking gun. If you want to point it out, I’m game.
Moving on, you wrote:
Even worse, she wrote that Sheckler loaned money to “convicted drug dealer Samuel Rose.”
Oops. Rose hadn’t even been arrested when Sheckler loaned him money.
Rose was subsequently convicted though, right? So he’s now … what? Yes: a convicted drug dealer. Here I’ll agree again that the wording could be clearer, but just try reading it slowly with me: He lent money to Samuel Rose, who is — both now and at the time this story was written — a convicted drug dealer.
I notice that you don’t even dispute that, actually. You’re just quibbling over the timeline. Well congratulations — Jesse’s buddy didn’t get convicted until after he lent him the money. Lucky for everyone. (Except the convicted drug dealer, I guess.) Sorry, but none of this changes the fact that he lent tens of thousands of dollars to a guy who was later convicted of dealing drugs.
I really still don’t see the “huge mistake” here. (Seems to me that lending money to a drug dealer is a “huge mistake,” though, for what it’s worth.)
Finally (mercifully) you wrote:
And by the way…when did The Progress run a correction? Not on Sunday, the day after the article appeared. Not on Monday…or even Tuesday. Finally, on Wednesday a correction was published. It ran in tiny print in the corner of page A3, where nobody actually looks.
Um, so wait, I’m confused. You’re saying that a correction ran in the paper? Uhhh … so then what exactly is the problem? The placement of the correction — in the same place where 99 percent of corrections always run? Please. I guess somebody must look in that corner of the paper, because you didn’t seem to have any problem finding the correction yourself.
Maybe — and I’m just speculating here so please don’t sue me too — it didn’t run right away because there weren’t any real factual mistakes in the story to begin with. Just some sort-of-vague wording. But then you called up demanding a correction anyway, and the paper’s editors were scared you’d come after them next, so they caved in and did what you wanted just so you’d go away.
Guess it didn’t work, huh?
Aren’t journalists supposed to confirm their information from at least two separate sources before running with it? Perhaps Melinda Semadeni misheard Pagel and she didn’t double-check the info. and WVIR was too embarrassed to admit their error. Had she reconfirmed the information for another source, she may not have been in this mess.
Just to set the record straight, here is the exact correction in the Daily Progress.
THE DAILY PROGRESS, Charlottesville, Va., Wednesday May 28, 2003
(Top right corner of page A3)
A Saturday, May 24, news article reporting on the defamation verdict obtained by Jesse Sheckler against WVIR-TV (Channel 29) stated that Sheckler had been charged with helping to finance convicted drug dealer Samuel Rose. The article also referred to a reported raid on Sheckler’s house and business. In fact, Rose had not been convicted at the time that Sheckler loaned him money to finance a construction project. Rose was arrested on federal drug charges after Sheckler made the loan. Also federal authorities did not raid Sheckler’s home and business.
I’m not a fan of Channel 29 either, but you don’t have to go to graduate school to know that this correction by The Daily Progress is an admission of error.
I’m not a fan of Channel 29 either, but you don’t have to go to graduate school to know that this correction by The Daily Progress is an admission of error.
Well, graduate school always helps, if only because it gives you the free time necessary for debating issues like these anonymously on message boards.
First: I really don’t believe there are any factual errors in the story, regardless of what the Progress’ publisher and managing editor say. See my other post for my reasoning on that.
Second, I’m not sure that this *is* exactly an admission of error. I hate to sound patronizing here, because for once that isn’t my intention, but you have to read corrections like these very, very, very carefully. I can assure you that’s how they’re written.
Just check out the format of this one, which goes something like this: “The article reported X. In fact, Y.” Now, it says that Y is true, but it doesn’t say anywhere that X is false. Read very closely, it just says “In fact, Y,” and stops there. The “correction,” as written, doesn’t say anything about the truth or falsity of X.
My point boils down to this: The “correction” doesn’t say the article was wrong about a loan, and it doesn’t say the article was wrong about “a reported raid.” (And a raid certainly was reported, by Channel 29 and quite possibly by the prosecutor, even if he doesn’t admit it now.)
What this “correction” does do is add additional information so that you can better understand what the article did say. To my mind, that makes it less a correction than a clarification. And yes, a more or less justified clarification. I just think the Progress’ editors mislabeled it.
The *reason* that they mislabeled it goes to my larger point, which is that one or more of the people in charge at the paper are gutless, are freaking out about Schwabgate, and will undermine their own stories — even the solid ones — for the sake of appeasing pretty much anyone who calls to threaten them. If you doubt me, give it a try sometime!
So. I’ll grant you, with reservations, that the *clarification* was warranted, but I think it’s a shame that in their haste to avoid a lawsuit or a lost subscription or whatever, the editors overplayed it and gave ammunition to people like the previous poster: people with agendas, who would be attacking even their most solid reporting.
C-Ville Weekly has a much more accurate – and hilarious – story this week. Sheckler’s going to write a book!