Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge in 2012, the case was described as a "$2.5-million suit" and Bower said, "How can a convicted fraudster find a jury who will say that his reputation has been damaged by a book that says he's a fraudster?" A passing reference in the book to the British businessman, pornographer, and publisher Richard Desmond led to Desmond unsuccessfully suing Bower for libel in 2009. Desmond argued that the description in the book that he was "ground into the dust" when he had published an apology after Black had threatened to sue for libel had weakened his reputation. Notes References Conrad and
Food libel laws BPI could have received as much as $5.7 billion in statutory trebled damages were ABC News found liable. After the case had been tried for only three out of the expected eight weeks, ABC News and BPI reached a settlement of $177 million, the largest settlement recorded for a media defamation case. The terms of the settlement were not released. Food libel laws have faced opposition from free speech defenders, who argue that they restrict speech about agricultural products to a degree which is unconstitutional. Of particular concern is that some states' food libel laws seem to violate the "of