World Net Daily’s Joseph Farah and Jerome Corsi are suing Esquire over its article alleging Farah was retracting Corsi’s birther book, Talking Points Memo reported.
As iMediaEthics reported in May, Esquire published a story claiming that World Net Daily was pulled Corsi’s latest book off the shelf and issuing refunds to those who had bought the book already. Esquire didn’t immediately label the story as parody or satire, but did append a note about 90 minutes after publication explaining that the article was intended to satirize books on stories still in the news cycle.
According to Talking Points Memo the lawsuit calls for “$100 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages plus legal costs” and alleges that some stores did begin pulling Corsi’s book off the shelf as a result of the article.
Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici reported that $120 million sum was just “for one of the five counts” in the lawsuit, and that the lawsuit in total calls for “more than $285 million.” In statement, Esquire again defended the post as “satire” and “humor” and commented that the satire-label “was not lost on our observant readers,” Yahoo News reported.