Ham Sandwich Confusion Not Slander

All that over a ham sandwich.

A judge ruled yesterday the slander lawsuit brought by Lewiston Middle School superintendent Leon Levesque against Fox News will not go to trial.

The full story goes back to April 2007, when Lewiston Middle School made news because of students leaving a ham sandwich on the table of Somali students to insult their religion. Then, a fake news story came out about the incident, with fake quotes from Levesque, and Fox & Friends picked up on it as if it were real. Brother blog FishbowlNY detailed the whole incident last year.

“So many people are typing in saying, ‘you’re making this story up,’” said co-anchor Steve Doocy. “No we’re not making this up.”

Co-anchor Brian Kilmeade responded: “You know I hope we’re not being duped.”

They were. But as the judge ruled, failure to fully investigate the story, “even when a reasonably prudent person would have done so, is not sufficient to establish reckless disregard.”

Click continued to see the segment from last year…

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