An Idaho billionaire settled a defamation lawsuit this week against a reporter Peter Zuckerman for his comments on “The Rachel Maddow Show” which the reporter admitted included untrue statements. The controversy stemmed from an award-winning series of articles Zuckerman wrote in 2005 about a pedophile in the local Boy Scouts who Mormon Church leaders allowed to stay in his job while covering up his molestation of a child. In response to the series, the Mormon businessman Frank VanderSloot published full page ads in the newspaper attacking the articles and outing Zuckerman as a gay man. (The Republic, October 21, 2015, by The Associated Press)
Zuckerman admitted that his comments on the Maddow show “could have been clearer.” He had been attacked as a gay man before VandSloot’s ads, and it was untrue that his ex-boyfriend had lost his job because Zuckerman was outed by VanderSloot. (Mother Jones, October 20, 2015, by Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery)
VanderSloot also settled a lawsuit two weeks ago against Mother Jones for a story they published about VanderSloot’s attack on Zuckerman. An Idaho judge ruled that Mother Jones had not defamed VanderSloot in stating that he bashed and publicly outed Zuckerman as a gay man and was engaged in gay-bashing. VanderSloot had renounced his anti-gay positions, making him object to Mother Jones’ depictions of him. (Mother Jones, October 8, 2015, by Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery)