A recent ruling from a California appellate court found the Fox News network innocent of defamation charges that were brought by seven day laborers in the state, after their faces were featured on a "wanted poster" for a news segment discussing violent crime on the "Hannity and Colmes" show.
The only problem was, there's no solid evidence that the immigrants had anything to do with the violent crime story, a four-minute broadcast that revolved around anti-immigration crusader John Monti, who claimed to have been attacked by the day laborers.
Under the incendiary caption "Manhunt At The Border," Fox News displayed the "wanted poster" with the heading "Wanted—Robbery, Assault and Battery," effectively giving the impression that the laborers were tied to the violent crimes and wanted by law enforcement.
Sean Hannity himself even took a brief moment to confirm that the people in the pictures were indeed the perpetrators of the supposed assault, according to court documents (PDF) that include a transcript:
Hannity: "I want to make sure for our audience's edification, here—those pictures that we're putting up, those are the pictures that you took of the people that eventually attacked you, correct?"
Monti: "Yeh, yeh that is correct. I took their pictures"
Even with such tenuous evidence—the word of a San Diego Minutemen supporter who has actually been accused by the day laborers of assaulting and stalking them to take their photographs—Fox News was not found to be at fault, not because their journalistic reporting was solid, but because their programming was considered to be privileged "under fair comment, opinion, and hyperbole:"
"Given the context of Fox News' use of the caption 'Manhunt at the Border' it is unlikely a viewer would have understood 'Manhunt at the Border' as referring to a police or law enforcement manhunt. Rather, a viewer more likely perceived 'Manhunt at the Border' as 'rhetorical hyperbole,' a 'vigorous epithet' or 'loose and figurative language.'
The appellate court reaffirmed the decision last week, and Fox News still refuses to issue a retraction.
Cross-posted on Gabacha.com, a news site covering immigration and other government transparency matters.