Richard Jewell, a security guard for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, discovered a suspicious knapsack containing a bomb. Jewell then led an evacuation. The FBI made him the primary suspect on the case, theorizing that he might have planted the bomb to be seen as a hero. This was leaked to the press. Two bombing survivors sued Jewell. On October 26, 1996, the FBI cleared him as a suspect. After being cleared Jewell sued several media companies for defamation.
A sum was settled with NBC, CNN, New York Post, and Piedmont College.
Cox Enterprises did not settle and the court decided “because the articles in their entirety were substantially true at the time they were published—even though the investigators’ suspicions were ultimately deemed unfounded—they cannot form the basis of a defamation action.” John R. Mather, a Fulton County state court judge, ruled that Jewell was a “public figure.” Mather determined that Jewell made himself a public figure through his extensive media interviews following the bombing. Mr. Jewell’s legal team had never been able to demonstrate that the paper’s coverage had risen to the level of actual malice against the “public figure.”
Appeals were turned down by the Supreme Court of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court
Sources: http://law.jrank.org, New York Times, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/j6075/edit/readings/jewell.html