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This article was first published as "[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1995Q3/bypass.html Bypassing Barriers With "Active" and "Passive" Public Relations]"in ''PR Watch'', Volume 2, No. 3, 3rd Quarter 1995. and "[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q2/merco.html Sludge Backs Up: Merco's SLAPP Suit Fails in Texas]" in ''PR Watch'', Volume 4, No. 3, 2nd Quarter 1997. The original articles were authored by [[John Stauber]] and Sheldon Rampton and is used here with permission. As with all SourceWatch articles, feel free to edit and revise.
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After a year of litigation, a Texas jury awarded actual damages in the paltry amount of $2, plus $5 million in punitive damages.
Upon appeal, however, the circuit judges found that Merco had failed to prove its case. "There must be sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendant in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of his publication," they stated. "That evidence is lacking here. . . . Merco presented no proof that TriStar and Kaufman knew, or should have known, that any part of the 'Sludge Train' broadcast was false. Indeed, Merco failed to show any part of the broadcast actually was false." [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q2/merco.html]
In defense of its position, Merco cited experts who argued that land application of sewage sludge is a safe practice, and argued that the program should not even have interviewed Kaufman, on grounds that he was a "renegade" notorious for his "whistleblower" activities at the EPA. The judges, however, ruled that "expert opinions are merely that--opinions. Moreover, because an 'expert' endorses a certain practice does not mean all reasonable debate on the merits or safety of that practice is foreclosed."
