ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Charles C. Johnson, a California-based independent blogger, filed a defamation lawsuit in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Thursday against Gawker Media and two of its journalists, seeking millions of dollars in damages.
Johnson alleges the reporters, J.K. Trotter and Greg Howard, based in New York City, published unsavory and untruthful statements about him, including pieces called, “What Is Chuck Johnson and Why? The Web’s Worst Journalist, Explained” and “Which of These Disgusting Chuck Johnson Rumors are True?”
The suit says Trotter had written about political stories Johnson had gotten wrong, saying Johnson is “well-known for publishing stories that fall apart under the slightest scrutiny.” The suit says Trotter misleadingly wrote that Johnson thought Michael Brown Jr., who was killed by a Ferguson police officer, “deserved to die” because he was African-American.
The lawsuit also criticizes Trotter for publicizing unsavory rumors about Johnson, including one that he had sex with a sheep at age 14 and another that he defecated on the floor on a dormitory hall in college. The rumors are false, the suit says.
The Gawker rumor piece “is simply a play-by-play account of reporting on largely self-created or incited rumors on matters which at no point were a matter of public concern,” the suit said. The suit said Howard had previously written about the defecation allegations.
Johnson says that by publishing the untruths, his reputation has been damaged, and his business, the media company Got News, has been placed in jeopardy.
“I have confidence that the good people of Missouri will see Gawker’s malicious lies about me for what they are,” Johnson wrote Tuesday night in an e-mail. “I hope they won’t forget how often Gawker has insulted the inhabitants of the Show Me State.”
Johnson, no stranger to controversy, was banned from Twitter in May after asking for donations to “take out” DeRay McKesson, who has been active in Ferguson and other civil rights protests around the country.
“The constitution does a lot to protect people,” said John Burns, Johnson’s St. Louis-based attorney. “Even people who are in the spotlight are entitled to certain protections, too. There’s lots of defamation there. Frankly, textbook defamation.”
The suit says they are seeking at least $66 million in actual and punitive damages, though Burns said they are seeking a recovery of about $20 million.
Burns would not elaborate as to why the suit was filed in Missouri, citing “strategy.”
“I will say this: I’m not an idiot,” Burns said.
Representatives of Gawker could not be reached immediately for comment Thursday evening.
