Date: 4th December 2000

Dcotor Wins Defamation Suit Against Utah TV Station


An Orem, UT doctor has won $2.2 million in compensatory damages in his defamation suit against Utah ABC affiliate KTVX over a hidden-camera investigation that earned the station two awards in 1995 and 1996. The jurors found that not only had reporter Mary Sawyers and the TV station defamed Dr. Michael H. Jensen, but that they had also violated his privacy. The reports had shown Jensen prescribing the diet drug Fen-Phen to the reporter and telling her that "maybe" he would also prescribe Dexedrine to her if the Fen-Phen proved ineffective. Jensen's attorney argued that his client had been appropriately punished for prescribing diet pills too freely but that Sawyers, in her commentary, had voiced incendiary charges that could not be substantiated when she said that Jensen had promised to provide Dexedrine to her, had never checked her blood pressure (hidden-camera footage shows a nurse checking it) and that state officials were "going after" his medical license. "Where's the truth in that?" his attorney, Dale Gardiner, asked the jury, saying that her remarks were intended to attract ratings and awards. The jury is due to consider punitive damages this week.

Source: Studio Briefing