Clark v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (ABC) (defendant) released “Sex for Sale: The Urban Battleground” (the broadcast), a broadcast that contained a segment focusing on the devastating effects of street prostitution on a middle-class Detroit neighborhood. ABC interviewed residents of the neighborhood and photographed women walking down the street. The first woman depicted on screen was white, obese, and in her fifties. The second was Black, obese, wore large-framed glasses, and was in her forties. The third, Clark (plaintiff), was Black, slim, attractive, well-dressed with large earrings, and in her twenties. As Clark appeared, the narrator said: “But for black women whose homes were there, the cruising white customers were an especially humiliating experience.” Immediately after Clark appeared, a Black female resident of the neighborhood appeared on screen, stating: “Almost any women who was black and on the street was considered to be a prostitute herself. And was treated like a prostitute.” Clark sued ABC for defamation. Clark testified that the broadcast shocked her and her husband and that she had since its release been propositioned, shunned at Church, and lost job opportunities. The district court granted ABC’s motion for summary judgment after concluding the broadcast was not defamatory because nothing in Clark’s appearance suggested she was a street prostitute. Clark appealed.