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Title: Chris Kyle, Author of American Sniper, Was a War Hero. He Was Also A Liar
Source:
slate.com
URL Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_ ... _lies_about_jesse_ventura.html
Published: Jan 20, 2015
Author: Mark Joseph Stern
Post Date: 2015-02-01 03:21:06 by Pericles
Keywords: None
Views: 33562
Comments: 108
American Liar
Why Jesse Ventura is likely to collect millions from Chris Kyle’s American Sniper.
By Mark Joseph Stern
Chris Kyle, author of the runaway best-seller American Sniper, was a military hero who killed 160 people during his four tours of duty in Iraq and is now the subject of an Oscar-nominated blockbuster. He was also a fabulist. Before his tragic murder in 2013, Kyle told a number of extremely dubious stories. In one tale, Kyle claimed he killed two carjackers at a gas station southwest of Dallas, and that his driver’s license directed local police officers who questioned him to contact the Department of Defense. Kyle also claimed he traveled to post-Katrina New Orleans with a sniper friend, set up his gun atop the Superdome, and picked off dozens of armed looters.
The 160 kills are confirmed by the Pentagon. But there are absolutely no records of, or witnesses to, the latter stories. They are, perhaps intentionally, unverifiable. But it wasn’t these fantastical tales of vigilante justice that got Kyle into legal trouble. It was another, much less exciting story—one that wasn’t just unverifiable, but verifiably false. That tale, conveyed in a mere three pages of American Sniper, has put Kyle’s widow on the hook for $1.845 million in damages. And it may soon make Kyle’s publishers wish they approached the veteran’s claims with great deal of skepticism.
Kyle’s legal difficulties emerged from a subchapter of American Sniper titled “Punching Out Scruff Face.” In it, Kyle describes beating up a former Navy SEAL (“Scruff Face”) after the SEAL claims American soldiers deserved to die in Iraq. Early drafts of the book identified the SEAL as Jesse Ventura, former governor of Minnesota and famed professional wrestler, but Kyle’s publishers removed the name for fear of a lawsuit. Nonetheless, in a radio interview following the book’s release, Kyle admitted that “Scruff Face” was Ventura, and he repeated the claim soon after on The O’Reilly Factor. American Sniper shot to the top of Amazon’s best-seller list, becoming a smash hit for its publisher, HarperCollins, selling more than 1.5 million copies by July of 2014.
There was, however, a problem: The Ventura story wasn’t true, and Ventura meant to prove it. So he took Kyle to trial, suing him—and, after he died, his estate—for defamation and unjust enrichment. In the United States, defamation cases are extremely difficult to win, thanks to the First Amendment. When allegedly defamatory statements pertain to a public figure, the plaintiff mustn’t just prove those statements were false. He has to prove the defendant made those statements with “actual malice”—that is, knowledge that they were false or with “reckless disregard” for their falsity. Very few defamation plaintiffs can make it over the high bar of actual malice.
Ventura made it. On July 29, 2014, a federal jury returned from six days of deliberations to award Ventura $1.845 million in damages—specifically, $500,000 for defamation and about $1.345 million for unjust enrichment. (In other words, Kyle unjustly profited from defaming Ventura, and so his estate must give Ventura some of that money.) Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, promptly filed for “judgment as a matter of law,” asking the trial judge to reverse’s the jury’s verdict because the jury clearly got it wrong. Failing that, she asked for an entirely new trial. The judge denied both requests, defending the jury’s verdict as legally and factually justifiable. Kyle’s widow is currently appealing the decision; her odds of winning appear quite low.
...snip...
This suit is the second of Ventura’s one-two punch, and from here, it looks like a knockout. During the first trial, Ventura’s attorneys uncovered records of HarperCollins’ negligence in fact-checking Kyle’s book, as well as evidence that HarperCollins specifically touted the Ventura story to drum up publicity. Kyle’s ghostwriters spoke with only one person who claimed to have witnessed the fight, a friend of Kyle’s who told a different version of the story that lacked Ventura’s offensive remarks. No one from HarperCollins contacted Ventura or his representatives to verify the story. And though Kyle claimed Ventura appeared at a SEAL graduation afterward with a black eye—where “everybody was laughing” and asking “Who beat the shit out of him?”—HarperCollins never asked a member of the graduating class whether they saw Ventura’s injury. (A photograph from the event shows a clear image of Ventura—with no black eye.)
It gets worse for HarperCollins. Despite the tenuous source of the Ventura story, HarperCollins quickly saw it as a publicity gold mine. After Kyle identified “Scruff Face” as Ventura in a radio interview on The Opie & Anthony Show, HarperCollins editor Peter Hubbard wrote in an email that the publicity from the story was “priceless.” HarperCollins publicist Sharon Rosenblum described the Ventura kerfuffle as “hot hot hot,” immediately arranging for Kyle to retell the tale on The O’Reilly Factor. Sales of American Sniper—which, up to that point, were fairly modest—spiked dramatically, apparently in conjunction with interest in the Ventura story. After the O’Reilly appearance, Ventura publicly denied Kyle’s accusations. Yet Rosenblum arranged for Kyle to tell the story again on The Opie & Anthony Show, and HarperCollins printed several new editions of the book that still featured the “Scruff Face” section. (It was finally removed after Ventura won his suit.)
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 20.
#1. To: All (#0)
As Jesse has repeatedly proven.
As Jesse has repeatedly proven. Yes, Kyle lied and Jesse got the court to have Kyle's estate pay him almost $2 million dollars.
Jesse lied to become rich so he is respected by people who are conspiracy whackos, lefties and expats.
And Ventura was respected and believed enough by a jury and judge who awarded him $2 million of Kyle's money because Kyle libeled him. Meanwhile, that braintrust Kyle thought bringing a vet with PTSD to a shooting range was good therapy. God or Darwin passed judgement.
Jesse lied. So did O.J. You defend liars. You're an ignorant expat.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/384176/justice-jesse-ventura-was-right- his-lawsuit-j-delgado Justice for Jesse: Ventura Was Right in His Lawsuit People beating up on The Body are ignoring facts and basic fairness. By A. J. Delgado, is a conservative writer and lawyer. She writes about politics and culture.
weaponsman.com/?p=17042 Taya Kyle and the kids are now broke because of Ventura! I hope someone is setting up a fund for them!” I don’t know where she got this strawman, because I haven’t seen it anywhere else. If someone said that, he or she is stupid. If Delgado made it up, Delgado is dishonest. We already know Delgado is dishonest, but we’re willing to be convinced she saw something like this from some dumb-ass, somewhere. It sure hasn’t characterized discussion in the public and private forums of the SOF world, at least the subset of them known to us.
http://weaponsman.com/?p=17042 From your own source. LOL!
A comment by a poster, DUH! You aren't very bright.
Wow, you are old. Any ability to use modern references not from the early 90s?
There are no replies to Comment # 20. End Trace Mode for Comment # 20.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestDon’t pity the publishers too much, though. In the midst of this legal drama, the movie adaption of American Sniper has shattered box office records and brought in well over $100 million. HarperCollins is sure to make a killing off royalties from the film, and off sales from the new movie tie-in edition of American Sniper. Even if Ventura wins millions in his second lawsuit, the publishing house may well walk away from this debacle with a healthy profit remaining, just as Kyle’s widow will do. The moral of Kyle’s story, then: It pays to lie.
#2. To: Pericles (#1)
It pays to lie.
#4. To: Otter (#2)
It pays to lie.
#6. To: Pericles (#4)
(Edited)
#7. To: Otter (#6)
(Edited)
#8. To: Pericles (#7)
#9. To: Otter (#8)
#13. To: Pericles (#9)
#14. To: Otter (#13)
Hate to defend a crazy old man like Jesse (I watched his TV show, and I definitely stand by the ‘crazy’ bit). But in the interest of knowing the other side (without the histrionics of the lawyer’s article), here’s a bit of evidence that suggests Chris Kyle was a teller of tall tales: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/30/the-complicated-but-unveriable-legacy-of-chris-kyle-the-deadliest-sniper-in-american-history/ Whether the Jesse story is more of the same or absolute truth, couldn’t say – but I suspect stories like this are one reason the jury went against a dead war hero and his widow, and in favor of a crazy old man like Jesse.
#17. To: Pericles (#14)
From your own source. LOL!
#18. To: Otter (#17)
You aren't very bright.
#20. To: Palmdale (#18)
Replies to Comment # 20.
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