Last month, both traditional and social media were ablaze with quotes from comedian Tracy Morgan in response to Wal-Mart’s filed answer in the case Morgan v. Wal-Mart Stores, (2014 DNJ Civil Action No. 14-cv-04388), a case currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The lawsuit stems from the highly publicized June 7 car accident involving Morgan and several of his companions. Morgan was one of several people who were passengers in a limo-bus that was struck by a truck purportedly driven by a Wal-Mart driver. The accident resulted in the limo-bus occupants sustaining severe, life-threatening injuries.
As soon as the answer to the complaint was filed, salacious headlines popped up from a number of media outlets, like the one from CNN stating, “Tracy Morgan: I Can’t Believe Wal-Mart Is Blaming Me.” Meanwhile, websites like the Daily Beast wrote reports with lines like this: “According to Wal-Mart, Tracy Morgan should blame himself for his serious injuries after a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike.”
