PUSHING BOUNDARIES
Delaware satire website wins case in court as protected free speech
Gere Jordan always has seen humor in life, even if the joke may be abrasive, off-color or downright offensive. Sometimes it’s gotten him into trouble — and recently even into court.
Earlier this month, he won a lawsuit related to articles on his 10year-old, satirical online site that focuses mostly on events in the city of Delaware, where he lives and owns a marketing company.
On Sept. 7, a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge ruled that Jordan’s Delawareohionews.com did not defame a Columbus restaurateur because what Jordan reported was satire and protected free speech.
The lawsuit followed a fictitious story written by Jordan stating that Corso Ventures LLC was opening a new Columbus restaurant with a racist name catering to white people and featuring “no cover, no melanin” specials.
According to court records, Christopher Corso, who owns several restaurants, sued Jordan in June over the contrived article that appeared following actual news about a new dress code at the now-closed Short North Food Hall.
The code banned baggy clothing, excessive jewelry, flat-brimmed hats and athletic clothing among other things that critics and public officials deemed to be directed at Black people. After wide criticism, Corso extended an apology and removed the ban.
“It’s always fun just to make people laugh. I’ve always had a deep respect for legitimate news. But I also find that there’s a need for different angles, and humor gets people thinking about real issues.”
Gere Jordan
TOP: Gere Jordan, who writes under the pseudonym ‘Ricardo Paye’ for the satirical website Delawareohionews.com, sits for a portrait in his home Thursday in Delaware. “I have always been a comedian and prankster,” Jordan said about creating his site. “I like to do things to get a rise out of people and have a good time.”
Jordan, who is Black, wrote several satirical stories, including “White Wednesdays at Short North Food Hall,” that Corso described in the lawsuit as “flagrant, racist, malicious, disparaging, defamatory, grossly negligent” and “pure hate speech” and not protected by the Constitution. He had sought unspecified damages and removal of the stories from Jordan’s site.
But Judge Karen Phipps disagreed, ruling that Jordan’s work, however offensive, was protected speech because a reasonable person would know that it is satire. In her opinion, Phipps described Jordan’s work as ranging from “silly and nonsensical to the offensive and vulgar.”
Corso could not immediately be reached by The Dispatch for comment.
Satire has been described as material that humorously mocks, ridicules or scorns individuals or an organization, often as an effective form of criticism, and is protected under the free speech clause of the First Amendment. It has been upheld by the U.S. State Supreme Court in landmark cases such as Hustler Magazine v. (Jerry) Falwell in the late 1980s.
Jordan, 34, who writes under the pseudonym “Ricardo Paye,” knows the pitfalls of the pen and is well-versed in libel law and more. But entertaining others has been his motivation.
“It’s always fun just to make people laugh,” he told The Dispatch recently, the first time he’s been publicly identified. “I’ve always had a deep respect for legitimate news. But I also find that there’s a need for different angles, and humor gets people thinking about real issues.”
Some of the website’s content involves scatological humor, sexual themes and racial satire and wouldn’t be printed in The Dispatch or other actual newspapers. But among those that can be reprinted was one from this summer: “Social distancing July 4th parade will be 86 miles long, last 40 hours.”
Another story said that Delaware City Council, in order to increase revenues, voted to allow food vendors in Oak Grove Cemetery “to enjoy a hot dog or sno-cone while visiting the eternal resting place of your loved one.”
A recent story headlined “White Castle Porta Potty Festival Coming This Summer,” quoted an official describing “plastic outhouses surrounded by thousands of people in 100-degree heat,” calling it a “one-of-a-kind toilet experience.” The event was said to be co-sponsored by Sheetz and the Delaware Area Chamber of Commerce.
All of it — not true. The website even states: “Everything on this website is made up. Do not rely on anything said here,” along with a lengthier legal disclaimer.
The city of Delaware is aware of the website, Lee Yoakum, city spokesman, said.
“It seems to be a combination of fake news and satire and absurdity,” he said.
Cole Hatcher, spokesman for Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, has described the site as “more hurtful than satire should be” at times, and suggested that articles be “more clearly labeled as satire.”
Despite the website’s local focus, its reach, like any internet content, is boundless and sometimes interpreted as real news. A fake story about unvaccinated veterans being denied health benefits drew this response from an Iowa congresswoman:
“If true, this is insane!” U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-meeks tweeted to her 11,000 followers.
After learning that the story was fake, the Republican — an ophthalmologist and member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs — refused to remove it from her account, telling her local newspaper, The Quad-city Times: “The story and website is obviously satire and makes a powerful point. President Biden’s executive orders about COVID-19 have been classic examples of government overreach and these days the unbelievable has become reality.”
The article had more than 150,000 page views following Miller-meeks’ tweet and backlash from Democrats calling her irresponsible. Most of Jordan’s stories don’t do nearly as well.
Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, has reviewed Jordan’s site and was impressed.
“This one guy is able to put up something convincing enough that a member of Congress is believing it,” Thompson said.
Thompson calls good satire the Fifth Estate, journalism being the Fourth.
“If journalism is keeping government officials in check, satire and comedy are keeping journalism in check. A satirist can jump in where the angels of journalism fear to tread,” he said, noting that satirists don’t have to doublecheck their sources or check facts for accuracy.
With that comes an ethical responsibility, however, Thompson said. Just because you can legally say something doesn’t mean you should.
“What is the difference between a sophisticated satirist and a vicious spreader of disinformation, when both of them could write a story like this?” he asked of the veterans example.
For Jordan, facing consequences for expressing himself began as a teenager. During his junior year, he was expelled from Delaware Hayes High School for publishing a similar website, the nowdefunct Delawareamerica.com.
One of his posts was aimed at fellow students making obscene gestures during school. When the students were punished and he wasn’t, conflict grew between students, their parents and school officials, Jordan said. His site also ran a forum where parents and others criticized each other and cultivated more rancor.
Jordan said he was never warned before being expelled, but eventually got his degree from Delaware Hayes. Later, he got a degree from Ohio State University in finance.
A big fan of Hunter S. Thompson, the satire website The Onion and “The Daily Show,” originally starring Jon Stewart, Jordan has been drawn to irreverent commentary for years and now feels secure in his work being protected.
Just having a voice in a complicated world is satisfying, Jordan said, especially when people don’t always like your message and try to silence it.
“It showed me the power of the media and power of the internet,” he said of the recent court case. “They may not like you, but they can’t stop you.”