A CBS News report describing a Manhattan strip club that was raided by the FBI as “Mafia-run” did not give rise to a defamation claim brought by three club managers who were not named in the report, a divided Appellate Division, First Department, panel found.
Justice Peter Tom, writing for a three-judge majority Tuesday, said the case was properly dismissed by Justice Ellen Coin for failing to state a claim because the CBS report “does not name the plaintiffs at all and contains nothing that would cause a reader to think [CBS] was referring to them.”
