Jay Leno SLAPPed?

Posted by Ryan Metheny on Jan 26, 2012

Last week, Jay Leno joked on his television show that the Golden Temple of Armritsar in India, a holy site to the Sikh religion, was the summer home of wealthy presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  The joke caused a bit of an uproar, with many charging Leno with making an insensitive and derogatory jab at the Sikh community.  Now, Leno and NBC have been sued for defamation by a Bakersfield-area Sikh man, Dr. Randeep Dhillon and his organization, Bol Punjabi All Regions Community Organization, for making the joke.  (http://www.eonline.com/news/jay_leno_sued_by_sikh_man_over_mitt/289165.)

The lawsuit has some fairly obvious problems.  (Complaint here: http://www.eonline.com/static/news/pdf/JayLenoSikhsuit.pdf.)  It is not clear why the statement is defamatory: it obviously was not meant by the speaker to be taken as a statement of fact.  Some other problems:  Dr. Dhillon purports to sue on behalf of all Sikhs, but does not allege a class action; it is unclear how the joke damaged the plaintiff or how he would valuate this damage at trial; plus, it is unclear how Dhillon will get around the various defenses to the defamation claim NBC and Leno are sure to assert — fair comment and lack of injury to name just two.

The more interesting issue will be how NBC approaches the suit from a public relations perspective.  Filing an anti-SLAPP motion, and perhaps even getting an award of attorney’s fees against the plaintiff, would obviously create a PR disaster; the joke was largely regarded as offensive, and aggressively disposing of this suit might anger members of the public even more.  It may be a tricky matter disposing of this suit in a sensitive way, especially now that the media has taken an interest.

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