Dolan v. Cityfile [1]

James Dolan, Cablevision Systems Corporation, and Madison Square Garden sued the blog Cityfile: New York [2], its publisher, and one of its bloggers over a July 2009 post entitled "Jim Dolan to Kill Christmas in July?"  The complaint [3] (¶ 1), filed in New York state court, describes the Cityfile post as follows:

The article . . . defames and disparages the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the iconic holiday season production owned and operated by MSG, by — among other things — falsely alleging that Plaintiffs plan to "kill Christmas" for millions of fans by discontinuing the Christmas Spectacular, "scrap[ping]" the world-famous Rockettes, and installing an entirely new show at Radio City Music Hall during the holiday season.  Although the article purports to cite "insiders" as the source for these inflammatory allegations, the article is, in truth, nothing more than a sensational headline based on unfounded speculation, including double-hearsay from a "former cast member" and other anonymous "sources" who, as Defendant knew or should have known, have no knowledge of Plaintiffs' plans for the production.

Cityfile retracted the post and publicly apologized [4], stating: "We now realize that we could have done more to ensure that all relevant facts were included in the article. We have retracted the article and remove it from our website, and regret any negative and/or mistaken impressions that resulted from its publication."