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No action taken by state against Realtor who sponsored flawed news story 20-Jun-13 – It has taken more than four years but state regulators have confirmed they will not take action against a Chicago Realtor who advertised on a news website that contained inaccurate information. This website, to be specific. The case could have been a precedent for holding advertisers responsible for editorial content and a means to adversely affect creators of news content, dependent on advertising revenue, without directly violating their First Amendment right. On September 10, 2008, Loop North News published a story about a case in U.S. District Court in which the defendant, Dr. Gary Kimmel, had sold condo units to raise money for court-ordered restitution. Court documents appeared to claim the units were sold at prices well below market value. It was not made clear by the U.S. Department of Justice that the amounts represented net proceeds from the sale of the units after deducting mortgages, taxes, homeowner association fees, and U.S. Marshals Service expenses. After consulting with the Public Information Officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Loop North News published a corrected version two days later. The real estate agent employed by Kimmel was Donna Leonard, former president of Marina Towers Condominium Association. One of the units sold was to Ellen Chessick, then MTCA secretary and the condo board’s current president. The inaccurate article concerned Chessick enough to immediately file a complaint – not against the author but against a state-licensed Realtor who sponsored real estate listings on the site. Chessick claimed it was the Realtor who wrote the story, which was based on information obtained from the DOJ, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the defendant’s attorney.
Chessick correctly speculated that the amounts probably represented net proceeds after mortgage settlements “but this is not stated anywhere in the article.” Chessick also claimed the Realtor had written other news articles “too numerous to list” that contained “negative and untruthful articles about Marina City and MTCA and MTCA management.” She called it a “reckless disregard for the truth” and demanded the Realtor “face serious repercussions so that this damaging activity is stopped.” In his response to the complaint, Steven Dahlman, editor of Loop North News and author of the original article, explained to investigator Daniel Harden that news stories on the site are written by journalists and other professional writers and not Realtors. A spokesperson for the IDFPR says that while they have disciplined real estate professionals for false and misleading advertising, it is difficult to tell if a complaint is actually based on editorial content. Susan Hofer could not recall if such a complaint had been filed before. “If/when we recorded a discipline it would have said ‘false or misleading information’ but would not have specified what that information was or how it was prepared.” An expert on community news websites says he has never heard of an advertiser being held accountable for news content. Thom Clark, president of Columbia College’s Community Media Workshop, says state regulators “took forever to say ‘no’ to something they should have put aside quickly.” “The First Amendment gives journalists and editors a lot of leeway,” said Clark in an email on Thursday. Reached on Friday, Chessick denied claiming the 2008 article was written by the Realtor, despite her complaint to the IDFPR being about the Realtor and making the claim specifically at least three times in her cover letter. “Who actually negligently wrote the article is irrelevant,” said Chessick, adding, “I was very unhappy with the article because it caused irreparable harm to my husband and myself.”
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