‘Clarifications’ End $6-Million Libel Lawsuit

A $6-million libel suit filed by a Fresno land developer against McClatchy Newspapers was settled with the publication Sunday of front-page “clarifications” in the Fresno Bee and Sacramento Bee.

Edward M. Kashian had filed suit against McClatchy, publisher of the Bee newspapers, after the two newspapers published a story May 31, 1982, that attempted to link Kashian and many other Fresno businessmen to organized crime and the bribery of public officials.

In Sunday’s story the Bee said, “The Bee did not then and does not now take the position that Mr. Kashian was a member of organized crime or was involved in criminal activity.

“This statement is published in the interest of clarifying any misunderstanding caused by the article.”

Kashian said that statement gave him most of what he had sought. “My primary concern wasn’t money but my name and making sure that my family . . . wouldn’t be burdened by insinuations from the (original Bee) story,” he said.

The original Bee article mentioning Kashian was based largely on a deposition and its supporting exhibits given by McClatchy reporter Denny Walsh in another libel suit.

McClatchy had maintained that the deposition was “legally privileged”--that as with courtroom testimony, a witness can testify and a newspaper can provide a “fair and true” report of the proceedings and neither is vulnerable to libel action.

In his suit, Kashian charged that McClatchy reporters and editors had used the privilege of a deposition to maneuver into print allegations that would otherwise have been libelous.

In its statement published Sunday, McClatchy said, “The Bee believes it had an absolute right to publish the (original) article because the deposition was a judicial proceeding and dealt with a matter of public importance.”

The statement published by the Bee was worked out between attorneys for both sides and contained no mention of a financial settlement, but Robert Stumpf, one of Kashian’s attorneys, said that as part of the agreement to resolve the suit, McClatchy “assured Kashian that its gift program over the next two years does include at least $415,000 to benefit the department of communications at Stanford University.”

‘Improve the Balance’

Because of the original Bee stories, Kashian has spoken with many journalism educators about “trying to improve the balance between the rights of the press and the rights of the individual.”

Robert Warren, attorney for McClatchy, said, however: “Nobody paid any money in connection with this settlement, not directly or indirectly. Any sum (to be given to Stanford) was part of pre-existing commitment (by McClatchy) before this agreement.”

Gary Pruitt, in-house counsel for McClatchy, said the company has long given money to the communications program at Stanford, the alma mater of C. K. McClatchy, editor and president of McClatchy Newspapers, and “was going to give $415,000 . . . even if this suit had gone to trial, as scheduled” Jan. 21.

The six-point agreement settling the suit also included provisions that:

- McClatchy Newspapers publish nothing more about terms of the settlement than what was published in their four-paragraph story Sunday.

- The words “See also: Organized Crime” be stricken from the outside of a file envelope in the Fresno Bee library that contains clippings of Bee stories about Kashian and is filed under his name.