Jury finds Malcolm libeled Masson in New Yorker article - author Janet Malcolm; psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, July 1, 1993

The decade-old libel case pitting psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson against author Janet Malcolm and The New Yorker took one more unexpected turn early in June. Jurors in United States District Court in San Francisco found that Malcolm libeled Masson by fabricating quotes that she knew were defamatory, and did so with "reckless disregard" for their accuracy.

But the jury deadlocked on damages, making a new trial likely. As for The New Yorker, the jury found that it did not act with reckless disregard for the truth. The magazine will publish Malcolm's three-part series about poet Sylvia Plath beginning in August.