Montandon v. Cox Broadcasting Corp.

Opinion

BRAY, J.

*

Plaintiff appeals from judgment of the San Francisco Superior Court in favor of defendants.

Question Presented

Defendants are not legally responsible for the libelous changes made to their article by TV Guide.

[934]

Record

Plaintiff filed a complaint against Cox Broadcasting Corp., Pat Michaels and others for libel because of the publication in TV Guide of the article hereinafter described, submitted by the above-named defendants, but altered by the publishers of said magazine. Defendants answered the complaint and later moved for directed verdict. The trial court granted the m otion and entered judgment in favor of defendants.

1

The Facts

Detendant Cox Broadcasting Corp. (hereinafter “Cox”) is a corporation which operates KTVU Channel 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Triangle Publications, Inc. (hereinafter “Triangle”) is a separately owned, managed, financed, and operated corporation which publishes TV Guide. Defendant Pat Michaels is an employee of Cox. For a Pat Michaels show to be produced later, a Cox employee issued a press release which read:

"FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th, 10:30 P.M., TAT MICHAELS SHOW’,

[U] ‘FROM PARTY-GIRL TO CALL-GIRL?’ [H] How far can the ‘party-girl’ go until she becomes a ‘call-girl’ is discussed with T-V personality Pat Montandon, author, (‘How to be a Party-Girl’) and a masked-anonymous prostitute!” This was sent to TV Guide for publication in a later edition. There the release was changed to read: “10:30 [2] PAT MICHAELS—discussion (color) [H] ‘From Party Girl to Call Girl.’ Scheduled guest: TV Personality Pat Montandon and author of ‘How to Be a Party Girl.’ ” It was so published in TV Guide.

Neither Cox, Michaels nor anyone else connected with Cox_or KTVU either requested, authorized, knew of, or consented to any change in the news release. However, it was known to Cox personnel that Triangle might make changes in the release, but obviously no one knew that changes would be made of a sort to make the release libelous.