Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc.

Jeffrey Masson (plaintiff), a psychoanalytic scholar who lost his position at the Sigmund Freud Archives after publicly criticizing Freud, was interviewed extensively by New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm for an unflattering article later published as a book by Knopf (defendant); the article attributed many lengthy quotations to Masson that appeared nowhere in the 40 hours of taped interviews. Masson sued for libel, claiming all but one of the quotations were fabricated; because he was a public figure, the defendants could be liable only if they published false statements with actual malice. The trial court granted summary judgment, finding the passages substantially true or reasonable interpretations of the conversations, and the court of appeals, assuming Malcolm had deliberately altered quotations, still found no actual malice and affirmed.