Arthur Kent wins case against Postmedia

CALGARY Former journalist Arthur Kent has won an eight-year-old lawsuit against Postmedia and one of its columnists over an unflattering column that called the one-time TV reporter a “Dud Scud.”

A judge has ruled that the media company and columnist Don Martin defamed Kent while he was running for a seat in the Alberta legislature in 2008.

“While the article did not accuse Mr. Kent of any illegal or immoral acts, it characterized him as an egotistical, politically naive, arrogant candidate whose campaign was in disarray,” Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf said in a written decision Wednesday.

She awarded Kent a total of $200,000 from the defendants — $150,000 from Martin and Postmedia for the column and an additional $50,000 from Postmedia for continuing to publish the column online.

“I find that Mr. Kent is entitled to significantly more than nominal damages. He suffered substantial distress and damage as a result of the defamatory factual statements in the article,” she said.

Outside court, Kent said, “I’m feeling a measure of vindication from the ruling. Truth still matters in journalism — and isn’t that good news. Truth, accuracy and balance matter on the Internet and ... no genuine journalist will be anything but reassured and encouraged by this court decision.”

Martin referred calls to CTV, where he is now a host. CTV also declined to comment. Postmedia’s Phyllise Gelfand would say only that the company is “reviewing the decision.”

Kent, who got the nickname “Scud Stud” while reporting for NBC during the first Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, was a star candidate for the Progressive Conservatives.

But he was on the record as disagreeing with some of the party’s policies.

Martin’s column, which used unnamed sources and ran in Postmedia’s Calgary Herald, painted Kent as an out-of-control egomaniac who had alienated party staff.

The Tories went on to win a majority in the election, but Kent lost his race.

Kent’s lawyer had argued at trial that the column used trumped-up language and did the bidding of Progressive Conservative party sources with an axe to grind.

A lawyer for Postmedia argued that Martin, as a columnist, was allowed to express his point of view and didn’t act maliciously in doing so.

Under cross-examination, Martin acknowledged that the line about Progressive Conservatives calling Kent the “Dud Scud” had come from only one source, whose name he couldn’t remember.

“I’d write it differently today,” he said.