Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Libel Claim Against TV Station for D’Lites Report

A New York state appellate court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling
dismissing a lawsuit against a local Fox TV station that investigated and
reported on the allegedly false health claims of D’Lites ice cream in two
stores. Prince v. Fox Television Stations Inc., No. 107129/2011 (N.Y. App.
Div., 1st Dept., order entered March 8, 2016). The eight-minute “Shame
Shame Shame” report informed viewers that the nutritional information
advertised for a small serving did not correlate to the nutritional information
of the ice cream served by two New Jersey stores; the owner of a
D’Lites store—not one involved in the report—sued the station for libel. A
lower court then dismissed the lawsuit; details appear in Issue 524 of this
Update.

“To the extent that there were purported discrepancies in the measurements
of sugar and carbohydrates in the test results of the samples sold
in stores, plaintiff does not dispute that the servings as sold contained
more of these components than the nutritional panel advertised, and
thus the report remained substantially true,” the court found. “For
the same reasons, the report’s statements that the ice cream was not
diabetic-friendly were substantially true.” Further, “any reasonable
reader would understand that the statements that D’Lites ice cream was
not healthy was an expression of opinion,” the court found. “Because the
report repeatedly disclosed the nutritional content of the ice cream, the
reader was free to reach his or her own opinion regarding the health of
the product.” Accordingly, the court affirmed the lower court’s dismissal.

Issue 597