Our episode guest is Thomas Julin, First Amendment attorney, business litigator, and shareholder at Gunster Law Firm. Thomas has more than 30 years of experience advising companies and the media on free speech issues and libel claims.

Topic:

In this episode, Gunster’s Thomas Julin and host Jason Mudd share how brands can react to unfair news treatment and important federal statutes that come into play.

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:

1. Solutions for handling unfair news media, social media, and web coverage
2. The difference between brands’ and journalists’ rights and responsibilities
3. How the anti-SLAPP statute and Section 230 in the Communications Decency Act can affect defamation claims
4. What makes someone a public figure
5. How public comments can harm a libel case

Quotables

• “The pace of content being developed is unlike anything we've seen before. And there are no signs that it's gonna slow.” — @JasonMudd9
• “It's really a whole new ball game now from when I first started off, but I've pretty much seen it all from the beginning.” — @tomjulin
• “Once a person steps forward and starts commenting publicly, then they're gonna become a public figure. That's gonna make it much, much harder for that person to sue and win a libel case.” — @tomjulin

Important links:

• Google Scholar: Search “Thomas Julin” to see his cases and “libel and slander” to learn more on the topic.

Guest’s contact info and resources:

• Thomas Julin on LinkedIn
• Thomas Julin's bio on the Gunster website

If you’re enjoying the vodcast, would you please share it with others and leave us a review?

Episode recorded: Nov. 18, 2021

Sponsored by:

• “On Top of PR” is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
• “On Top of PR” is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.
• Burrelles has a special offer for “On Top of PR” fans.

About your host, Jason Mudd

Jason Mudd, “On Top of PR” host, is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands and fastest-growing companies. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002. Forbes named Axia one of America’s Best PR Agencies for 2021.

Support the Show.

• On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
• On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.