1979 phoenix gay bar
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Although factual issues as to the publication's truth or falsity have not been resolved, the issue raised by summary judgment is whether defendant newspapers and the AP, assuming the stories are false, have a qualified privilege to publish the defamatory material. The AP report and the stories published by the two newspapers are defamatory in themselves because they have a natural tendency to injure plaintiff's reputation. The prosecutor stated that Gay had "tried hard to get one of them free." The report concluded by saying that Gay had come to the attention of the IRE when they were investigating "reports that a mobster had tried to purchase Lukeville some years before Gay purchased the 67 acre town in 1967." In the final paragraphs, the AP report continued its summary of the published accounts by noting that two of Gay's employees had been convicted on narcotics charges after trying to sell heroin to undercover agents. The stories continued by noting, however, that the "IRE had learned that Gay admitted `flying in and out of Mexico and ducking underneath border radar.'" A sheriff's department official was quoted as saying that drug transactions took place in back of Gay's store in the town of Lukeville.
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The stories stated that "published accounts of a series by a team of investigative reporters" say that Gay, "a wealthy Alaskan bush pilot and owner of a small Arizona border town," was a "mystery man of the Arizona drug corridor," and that the town owned by Gay is a "major crossing point for drug smugglers." According to the stories, Gay had been interviewed by reporters and had denied any role in drug smuggling. The *14 Southeast Alaska Empire in Juneau deleted the final three paragraphs of the AP news report and published the remainder with the addition of its own headline, "Alaska Pilot Involved? Drug Corrider (sic) Alleged." The Ketchikan Daily News, owned and co-published by defendant Lew Williams, published the AP story in its entirety and added its own headline which read, "Alaska bush pilot accused in Arizona drug trafficking".
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The report was transmitted the following morning to AP's newspaper members in Alaska. The AP, in response to a request from a member, the Anchorage Times, prepared a news report on the IRE story regarding Gay on April 7, 1977. The IRE story on Gay was prepared in March 1977 and made available to the press for release on April 1, 1977. IRE wrote a series of articles for publication throughout the country. Bolles, who had been involved in an ongoing investigation into crime and corruption in Arizona, was killed by a bomb in 1976 on his way to interview an informant.
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Following the death of Don Bolles, an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, a group of journalists established the "Arizona Project" to investigate organized crime in Arizona. Gay prepared by Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The newspaper stories are alleged to have linked plaintiff with drug trafficking in Arizona, and were founded on a news report prepared by defendant Associated Press (AP) which in turn was based on published newspaper accounts of an article concerning Alfred E. The actions involve common questions of law and fact, and are consolidated for decision on defendants' motions for summary judgment. Gay by newspapers in Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska. These diversity actions for libel arise out of publications of a wire service story concerning plaintiff Alfred E. Schwab, Davis, Wright, Todd, Riese & Jones, Seattle, Wash., for Williams & Ketchikan Daily News. Hudson, Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Johnson, Augusta, Ga., for Southeastern & Morris. Horton, Birch, Horton, Bittner, Monroe, Pestinger & Anderson, Anchorage, Alaska, David E. Luke, Rogers & Wells, New York City, for Associated Press. Groh, Eggers, Robinson, Price & Johnson, Anchorage, Alaska, Richard N. *13 Hagans, Smith, Brown, Erwin & Gibbs, Anchorage, Alaska, for plaintiff. SOUTHEASTERN NEWSPAPERS CORPORATION, d/b/a Southeast Alaska Empire, and the Associated Press, Defendants. WILLIAMS, Jr., d/b/a Ketchikan Daily News, and the Associated Press, Defendants.