[staticautomatic]

I work in the law and I'm not 100% sure what the case law is on this but my guess is that if you could prove that they knew (or should have known) what they were publishing was false, then yes. First amendment lawyers please correct me if I'm wrong.

[testvox]

Yeah in general if the untrue statement was made without at least negligence then it will be protected.

> Statements made in a good faith and reasonable belief that they were true are generally treated the same as true statements; however, the court may inquire into the reasonableness of the belief. The degree of care expected will vary with the nature of the defendant: an ordinary person might safely rely on a single newspaper report, while the newspaper would be expected to carefully check multiple sources.