On January 15, 2020, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, citing "personal reasons," announced that he would not run for reelection as Representative of New York's tenth congressional district, which covers the Flatiron neighborhood of New York City. By February of that year, several candidates announced they were running for the soon-to-be open seat. One such candidate was Chelsea Clinton, then age 40, the daughter of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton. Chelsea Clinton has lived in the Flatiron neighborhood for approximately twelve years. Peter Doocy is a young and ambitious reporter for Fox News, a conservative media outlet. Mr. Doocy came to believe that secret hospital records from the state of Arkansas revealed that Chelsea Clinton was born, healthy and not premature, only five months after Hillary and Bill Clinton were married. In late February of 2020, on the Sean Hannity Show, which airs on Fox News in prime time (at 9PM eastern time), Mr. Doocy said the following: "It looks like Bill and Hillary have some explaining to do. Secret hospital records uncovered by this reporter clearly show that their only child, Chelsea, who just happens to be running for the open Congressional seat in New York's tenth district, was born healthy and not premature only five months after they were married. That means that Bill and Hillary hurried up and arranged a 'shotgun marriage' after they found out they were having Chelsea. We always knew that Bill was a rascal at heart. Now it appears that Hillary was into the whole 'free love' movement, too!" In fact, publicly available and independently verified records clearly show that Chelsea Clinton was born five years--not five months- after her parents were married. Chelsea Clinton heard about the comments Peter Doocy made on the Sean Hannity Show and decided to sue Fox News and Mr. Doocy for slander. Chelsea Clinton was the plaintiff in this case. Mr. Doocy and Fox News were the defendants. Chelsea Clinton's attorney based her client's complaint solely on the statement made by Mr. Doocy on the Sean Hannity Show and quoted above. The attorney for the defendants in this case immediately filed a motion for summary judgment in his client's favor. Given the facts set forth in this question, which of the following arguments is the best argument the attorney for the defendants could have made in his motion for summary judgment?

The plaintiff in this case was not defamed.

The actual malice standard is not met in this case, because Mr. Doocy sincerely believed what he said.

Emotional distress has not been specifically alleged in this case.

Bill Clinton has publicly admitted to lying about matters related to his sex life.

Chelsea Clinton is clearly a public figure, and thus the actual malice standard controls.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The detailed answer for the above question is provided below Out of the given options the best argum... View the full answer