The National Enquirer was recently sued for printing the truth.

Earlier this week, the California court system allowed damage suits to be filed against The National Enquirer for printing information that was accurate, but could be considered unnewsworthy and lacking in social value by a jury.

The Enquirer printed a story that exposed Eddie Murphy’s illegitimate two-year-old son and printed the financial arrangements Murphy had made for his son’s future.

The boy’s mother, Tamara Hood, filed charges against The Enquirer under the state’s right to privacy law. The case was dismissed in the trial court because the court said state law also recognized a privilege for publishing truthful information.

The case was reinstated by an appeals court that said a jury should decide whether the article printed had “social value” and was newsworthy enough to keep it from being an invasion of privacy.

Local officials say though this case was in California, similar cases could pop up anywhere.

Barbara Mack, a media lawyer and journalism professor at Iowa State, said because the Supreme Court refused to hear the case it would have no direct effect on journalists in Iowa or elsewhere.

She said it is unusual to allow a jury to decide what has social value. Usually, it is the judge that will decide if the story is newsworthy as a matter of law, Mack said.

“I’m not going to run screaming down the halls because of this case. However, I will follow it closely for the results,” Mack said.

Still, some are convinced The Enquirer case represents a growing judicial bias against the media.

Jeff Stein, also a journalism professor at ISU, said it could have a harmful effect on the media.

Stein said juries in the past 15 years have not hesitated to blame the media. Juries can say they do not have an interest in the article in question, he said, but maybe what they are really saying is they just do not like the journalists finding out about it.

“They always say that you kill the messenger who brings the bad news. Lately it has been the journalists who are reporting it,” Stein said.

These types of cases, he said, scare the media off, which just hurts the public in the long run. If the media doesn’t dig up the big stories, Stein said, then no one will and the public will not be informed about crucial information they may need to know. “For a journalist to be punished for writing the truth is no good. I don’t agree with that at all,” Stein said.