Red's Rant continues

[Jack Bennest]

Tyee, Mair Sued by Canwest
Suit claims column injured Province newspaper.
Published: February 5, 2008




TheTyee.ca
Canwest Publishing is suing Rafe Mair and The Tyee, claiming a Mair column published Dec. 24 libeled Canwest and its newspaper, the Vancouver Province.

Two days after it was published, the column was amended with the intent to correct errors and then, later in the day, removed from The Tyee. Tyee staff then worked with Google to remove the link from that search engine.

The Tyee has published three retractions of the column in question, the first on Dec. 27 and two more, by Tyee editor David Beers and Mair, on Jan. 17. Beers and Mair apologized “unreservedly” and stated they “sincerely regret any damage or harm that has been suffered by any of the individuals involved, including the Asper family.”

On Jan. 29, Canwest filed a suit claiming that Mair’s column injured the Province newspaper’s character, credit and reputation. The writ also claimed Mair and The Tyee showed malice towards Canwest in publishing untrue facts.

The suit names Mair and Countercurrent Media Ltd., doing business as the Tyee.

Neither Mair, Beers, nor anyone at The Tyee are offering any public comment on the lawsuit.

The three apologies can be read here:

Dec. 27 Correction and Apology

Jan. 17 Apology by Rafe Mair

Jan. 17 Apology by David Beers

[Cliff Bashly Kinkade]

Holy S%^T, there has to be something else going on with this story. The rant was direct, and as I recall somewhat disjointed (and overly simplistic), so I would wonder what damage it truly did.