May 27, 1999: Internet Defamation - Art's Secret
The second lawsuit, filed that same day in Los Angeles Superior Court, targets David John Oates and Robert A.M. Stevens for fabricating claims that Art was arrested for trafficking in pornography. Jerry Fox details how independent investigation, including records from the Monterey County clerk and the Monterey Herald, confirmed every allegation to be completely false. The complaint includes six counts ranging from slander and conspiracy to intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Art reveals that these attacks connect to an undisclosed family tragedy from December 1997 that prompted his sudden departure from the air. He and Jerry discuss the lack of accountability on the internet, the difference between free speech and defamation, and the devastating personal toll of being publicly branded with the worst accusation imaginable. Art promises that the full story will become public within the week.
Key Moments
Bell breaks his silence about leaving the air: Bell tells the audience he is finally about to lay out what has been going on in his life since his abrupt departure from the air, that the underlying family crisis will become public within a week, and introduces his attorney Gerald 'Jerry' Fox of Fox Sigler and Spillane.
Hinkson and Gunderson called Bell a child molester on shortwave: Fox lays out that on December 9, 1997, David Hinkson on Ted Gunderson's shortwave program over WWCR Nashville stated through innuendo and direct statements that Bell had been indicted for child molestation and bribed officials to bury the indictment in Nye County.
Oates and Stevens lawsuit filed in Los Angeles: Fox describes the second, just-filed Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against David John Oates and Robert Stevens, who claimed on Oates' April 3, 1999 program that Bell had been arrested for trafficking in pornography and made pornographic videos with Filipino women, allegations the Monterey County clerk's office and the Monterey Herald have refuted.
Accountability, not censorship, on the internet: Bell argues that the only viable solution to anonymous online defamation is not censorship of the internet but accountability, requiring real names so a person who slanders someone can be held responsible the way print and broadcast journalists already are.