NBC 'Dateline' Defamation Lawsuit Revived by Appeals Court

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Chris Hansen

On Wednesday, the 10thU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a judge had too quickly dismissed an insurance broker's defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal, reporter Chris Hansen and others over a 2008 Dateline segment titled "Tricks of the Trade."

"This case is anything but normal," writes Circuit Judge Terrence O'Brien.

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Among other things, the case addressed whether a journalists privilege, commonly understood to protect the identity of anonymous sources, extends further in Colorado. It also raises the issue of whether journalists, acting with government cooperation, can enter a private place under false pretenses without violating an individual's or company's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The lawsuit and appeal were brought by Tyrone Clark and his company, Brokers Choice of America (BCA), upset with the way Dateline had used snippets of Clark's two-day seminar for insurance brokers located on the company's property in Colorado. With assistance from Alabama officials, Dateline's crew surreptitiously filmed the seminar, and according to Clark's company, used its own tricks of the trade selective editing and commentary to present Clarks statements out of context.

The Dateline segment presented Clark as using or teaching scare tactics to get seniors to buy annuities, but BCA says that a complete viewing of Clark's seminar would show him taking a more nuanced approach to annuities that Clark said they were not for everyone and urged his students to probe their customers' situations for suitability and obey a code of conduct that included disclosures.

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NBC's primary defense against the lawsuit was that its presentation of statements in the Dateline program were "substantially true," and on a motion to dismiss, a trial judge bought that argument.

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NBC 'Dateline' Defamation Lawsuit Revived by Appeals Court