A Louisiana judge has protected the satirical expression of the publisher of a “fake news” Web site from the misguided legal attack of a wildlife sanctuary that objected to a story about a killer giraffe.

Nicholas Brilleaux's Hammond Action News mostly pokes fun at public officials and institutions in Tangipahoa Parish, La. On Feb. 25, he posted an item headlined “Giraffe Claims Third Victim at Global Wildlife” to spoof the fatal killer whale attack a day earlier on a trainer at Sea World in Florida.

The Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, La., which is home to more than 4,000 endangered and threatened animals, didn't get the joke and sued Brilleaux for defamation, saying it had gotten phone calls from people who thought the story was true. “I think this article does nothing but instill fear,” Christina Cooper, a Global Wildlife official, testified at a hearing March 15.

But the test for defamation is whether a reasonable reader — not an absurdly gullible one — would interpret a statement as describing actual facts or events. And 21st District Court Judge Beth Wolfe denied Global Wildlife's request for an order requiring Brilleaux to permanently remove the giraffe story from his site and awarded him $500 in attorney fees and costs.

“I don’t think there is any malice of intent from either party. Hurt feelings and misunderstandings …,” she said. “I think the bottom line is: This is protected.”

Brilleaux had taken the story down after another judge last week granted Global Wildlife a temporary restraining order without a hearing. The story now appears with the disclaimer, “This article is not a statement of fact. The content of Hammond Action News is purely satirical and for entertainment purposes only.”

“This is a sensitive kind of case,” Brilleaux's attorney, J. Parker Layrisson of Pontchatoula, La., said. “There is nothing worse than being the butt of a joke, except for being the butt of a joke that you don’t get.”

The story described how a giraffe grabbed a tour guide by the head and repeatedly shook her “before hurling her body into the upper limbs of a nearby tree” and quoted a Global Wildlife spokesman as saying, “What we have here is what we call a ‘rogue giraffe’ situation. It’s rare, but it happens.”

In a petition for injunctive relief, Global Wildlife said Brilleaux had damaged its "reputation as a safe place for children to experience close 'hands on' experience with animals." Louisiana law defines defamation as the malicious publication of “anything which tends ... to deprive [a person] of the benefit of public confidence.”

The ACLU sprang to Brilleaux's defense, saying he deserved the same First Amendment protection that the U.S. Supreme Court granted to Hustler magazine for a fake interview in which Rev. Jerry Falwell said he had his first sexual experience with his mother. Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988).

“Allowing Global Wildlife to enjoin Mr. Brilleaux from posting [a satirical] article online would have a chilling effect on free speech and freedom of the press in our community just as allowing Rev. Falwell to recover damages against Hustler Magazine would have done so,” it argued in an amicus brief.

ACLU attorney Katie Schwartzmann also said the story should be viewed within the context of Hammond Action News, which also features postings on suicide golf cart missions, a litigious alligator, and a school district suing all its students. “It would be a stretch of immeasurable proportions to suggest that such articles would mislead a person of ordinary intelligence,” she said.

Global Wildlife has yet to indicate whether it will appeal Wolfe's ruling but the thin-skinned Cooper said in a statement, “Mr. Brilleaux’s article was affecting our nonprofit’s mission to serve the community and affecting public confidence in our ability to provide a safe, family-friendly experience.”

Brilleaux, a senior at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, launched his site in September 2008. In another anti-satire case, The North Face clothing company recently sued a Missouri college student for creating a parody of its brand called The South Butt.

By Matthew Heller
3/17/10