Vietnam vet loses $11 mil. lawsuit

Jace Radke

Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.

An $11 million libel lawsuit filed by a Vietnam veteran and former Las Vegan against CNN and Time magazine was dismissed in federal district court last week.

Peter M. Landon filed the suit last May against Time Warner Inc., parent of the news organizations, claiming that he was slandered and libeled in reports that a U.S. Special Forces unit he was a part of used nerve gas to kill American defectors hiding in Laos in 1970.

Landon, who now lives in California, was not named, interviewed or discussed in the reports, but he appeared in one of the decades-old group photos in Time's article.

In June 1998 Time magazine and CNN reported that the U.S. military dispersed deadly Sarin gas during Operation Tailwind, and that those who participated in the operation killed women and children.

The Pentagon denied the reports, and CNN and Time ran retractions in early July 1998.

Attempts to reach a CNN spokesman in Atlanta today for comment were not successful.

Numerous lawsuits seeking damages have since been filed against Time Warner, but after five extensions of time, Landon failed to respond to the media conglomerate's motion to dismiss his suit.

Landon was suing for economic damages to his property, business and profession, out-of-pocket losses and incurred medical bills and other economic losses, including the inability to work due to illness and depression caused by the defamatory statements, according to the complaint.

Even if the suit had not been dismissed in U.S. Magistrate Robert J. Johnson's courtroom on April 3, Landon would still have had to detail what his losses were.

"Plantiff never alleges that he demanded a correction by either defendant," the judge wrote. "More importantly, both defendants, on their own accord, retracted the story and issued corrections. Based on these facts, plaintiff is limited to special damages as his sole remedy."

Landon did not specify how his economic losses were related to the reports, according to the order, and the Nevada Supreme Court has held that neither medical bills nor economic losses due to inability to work constitute special damages.