Jerry Roberts Lambasts McCaw’s AJR Lawsuit

Former N-P Editor Fires Back at Wendy McCaw

Wendy McCaw, owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press,
used her lawsuit against an American Journalism
Review writer to “publicly attack and defame” former
editor Jerry Roberts (pictured receiving the Society of
Professional Journalists ethics award), his attorney contends.

McCaw’s recent suit in an Orange County court against Susan
Paterno (download that
here in PDF form), author of the recent “Santa Barbara Smackdown” piece in the
AJR, accuses Paterno of defamation regarding the
News-Press and “trade libel.” But it was also a
“calculated end-run” around current arbitration proceedings to
trash Roberts’ reputation, San Francisco attorney Andrine
K. Smith told The Independent on Wednesday.