Herring Networks, Inc. v. Maddow
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
8 F.4th 1148 (2021)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Kristian Rouz was a reporter for One American News Network (OAN), which was owned by Herring Networks, Inc. (Herring) (plaintiff). Simultaneously, Rouz freelanced for Russian-financed Sputnik News. After an article was published in The Daily Beast noting Rouz’s two jobs, Rachel Maddow (defendant) ran a segment on Rouz on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. During the segment, Maddow expressed gleeful shock at the story of Rouz’s dual employment and said that OAN “really literally is paid Russian propaganda.” Herring sued Maddow for defamation. Herring stated that OAN was never paid by Russia or the Russian government. The district court held that Maddow’s statement was not defamatory. Herring appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Smith, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 899,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 47,000 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

