## Facts

- ABC aired an “ABC News Closeup” documentary, “Sex for Sale: The Urban Battleground,” about sex-related businesses and street prostitution, including a Detroit neighborhood segment.
- The segment showed several women walking on the street while narration discussed prostitution in the area, including that customers were often white and “street prostitutes” often black.
- Ruby Clark, a Black woman in her early-to-mid twenties, appeared in clear frontal close-ups; she testified she was merely walking in her neighborhood and did not know she was being filmed.
- Immediately after Clark’s appearance, a resident stated that almost any Black woman on the street was considered and treated as a prostitute.
- Clark alleged the broadcast implied she was a street prostitute and that she suffered reputational and economic harm, including being propositioned, shunned at church, and losing employment opportunities.
- Clark sued ABC for libel in federal district court; the district court granted summary judgment for ABC on the ground the broadcast was not defamatory as to Clark.

## Issues

1. Whether the broadcast was incapable, as a matter of law, of conveying a defamatory meaning about Clark, warranting summary judgment for ABC.
2. Whether reasonable viewers could understand the broadcast to be “of and concerning” Clark and to imply she was a street prostitute, requiring submission to a jury.

## Decision

- The court of appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment and remanded.
- The broadcast, viewed as a whole, was reasonably capable of conveying a defamatory meaning about Clark.
- A reasonable jury could find that Clark was identifiable from the close-ups and was portrayed, by implication and context, as a street prostitute.
- The district court erred by focusing narrowly on Clark’s appearance rather than the combined effect of the program’s visuals, sequencing, and narration.

## Legal Principles

- On summary judgment in a defamation case, the court asks whether the communication is reasonably capable of a defamatory meaning; if reasonable minds could differ, the issue should go to the jury.
- Defamation may arise by implication or innuendo from context, including juxtaposition of an identifiable person’s image with narration and thematic content, even without an explicit accusation.
- The “of and concerning” requirement can be satisfied where the plaintiff is readily identifiable and the surrounding context supports an inference that the defamatory characterization applies to that person.

## Conclusion

The court held that the television segment’s structure and context could lead reasonable viewers to conclude that an identifiable Clark was a street prostitute; because that defamatory implication was triable, summary judgment for ABC was improper and the case was remanded for further proceedings.


Clark v. Am. Broad. Cos., 684 F.2d 1208 (6th Cir. 1982)