Howard K. Stern, Plaintiff v. Rita Cosby and Hachette Book Group USA, Inc., Defendants
A country; particularly the United States, legal infrastructure is a key factor in the media 's ability to fulfill their "watchdog" function. However, most of the 1990s had completely lacked a legal base that would allow non-governmental media to defend their newfound abilities to present alternative and often critical points of view. New legal rulings and laws passed during the past ten years now protect more of the media and publication houses and allows them to bring in new technical ways of supporting their publications and any evidence they might have. One of the most popular types of cases being brought to court against the new media and publication houses are libel and or defamatory suits; no matter how insignificant. A recent libel and defamatory case that has been brought to court where Howard K. Stern who is the plaintiff is suing a publishing company in New York along with Rita Cosby who published a book based on a celebrity’s nanny(s) claimed information. For background information, Howard K. Stern was a friend, lawyer and previously thought father of Vickie Lynn Marshall’s (otherwise known as Anna Nicole Smith) daughter. Which was later proven false based on DNA testing after Smith’s sudden death in early 2007. The libel suit was filed on October 2, 2007 after Cosby’s book Blonde Ambition was published this past September and became a bestseller and was based on what the nanny(s) had witnessed in Smith’s life as her child’s nanny. Stern’s case alleges that some of the passages within the book, especially the passage where Stern is named along with Larry Birkhead; who is the father of Smith’s daughter, claims that both were engaging in sexual intercourse on tap that Smith was reportedly watching. Stern affirms that he has never engaged in any type of sexual intercourse with Birkhead and that no video tape even
Bibliography: Stern v. Cosby. 2007. West Law Database