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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Curtis Pub. Co. v. Butts
Citation:
388 U.S. 130 (1967)Facts
Wallace Butts was the athletic director at the University of Georgia, employed by the Georgia Athletic Association (a private corporation) rather than the state itself. The Saturday Evening Post published an article titled “The Story of a College Football Fix,” claiming Butts had revealed Georgia’s plays and defensive strategies to Alabama’s coach Paul Bryant before their 1962 game. The article was based on an insurance salesman named George Burnett who claimed to have accidentally overheard a telephone conversation between Butts and Bryant. The Post characterized this as a shocking sports scandal comparable to the 1919 White Sox scandal. After publication, Butts sued for libel, seeking $10 million in damages. At trial, evidence showed the Post had conducted minimal investigation: they knew Burnett was on criminal probation, never viewed his notes before publication, failed to interview a witness who was with Burnett, didn’t review game films, and assigned a writer who was not a football expert. The Post had also recently adopted a policy of “sophisticated muckraking” to boost circulation. Butts presented evidence that the alleged conversation was merely general football talk that would not have provided valuable information to Alabama.
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