Christian Kiely in podcast discusses Netflix defamation suit
Christian Kiely recently joined the Legal Judg(e)ments podcast to discuss the challenges and nuances of a defamation lawsuit against Netflix for its program dramatizing the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal.
Mr. Kiely persuaded a Massachusetts Superior Court judge to deny Netflix’s request to dismiss the defamation suit filed by the firm’s clients, John B. Wilson and his son John Wilson Jr.
Netflix and other defendants created and aired the program examining the conduct of several parents charged in the Varsity Blues prosecution with attempting to secure their children’s admission to elite colleges through fraud and bribery.
In the podcast, Mr. Kiely observes how Netflix’s documentary unfairly portrays the Wilsons and their conduct through selective editing. The Wilsons assert that the Netflix film intentionally blurred the conduct of culpable families with that of their own and was intentionally misleading and false.
Mr. Kiely explains the “fair reporting” defense to a defamation suit. He notes that the judge, in allowing the case to proceed to discovery, ruled that a reasonable jury could conclude that the defendants’ selective editing materially misled viewers of the film regarding the Wilsons’ culpability.