Attack of Reporter Susan Paterno Marks New Low for Journalism
Lawsuits
Published in various newspapers across the country yesterday was
Associated Press reporter Greg Risling’s story
about the lawsuit filed last week in Orange County against Susan
Paterno, a writer for the well-respected American Journalism
Review. 
that lawsuit, and you can read it
here in PDF form.
Paterno wrote the article entitled “Santa Barbara Smackdown,” a
touching portrait of the meltdown at the News-Press and
probably the most thorough investigation of what happened before,
during, and since the crash. The SB Media Blog covered her story here. (Paterno also wrote about the lawsuit against The Indy, and we wrote
about that article here.)
In brief, the lawsuit claims that Paterno, 48, a professor at
Chapman University and a reporter for AJR for a decade,
engaged in libel and “product disparagement.” (Oddly enough, the
suit claims that Paterno’s article hurt “Santa Barbara’s residents
as well.”) The plaintiff, which is technically Ampersand Publishing
and represented by Stanton
L. Stein of Santa Monica’s Alschuler Grossman
Stein & Kahan firm (the same guy suing The Indy),
is seeking damages. Of course, we are not surprised at this legal
lob, for it’s just the latest in a seemingly endless string of
lawsuits.