City Councilor Sues College Paper for Libel

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The Oswegian, SUNY Oswego's student-run daily, has been socked with a defamation suit by a city councilor whom the paper wrongly identified as a registered sex offender and co-owner of a taxi company, the Syracuse Post-Standard (www.syracuse.com) reported.

Republican Mike Todd (3rd Ward) sued the paper over an article that appeared last month that mis-identified him and alleged he opposed allowing sex offenders to operate cabs. Neither Todd nor Oswegian editors spoke to the Post-Standard.

Though partly funded by mandatory student fees administered by the college's Student Association, the Oswegian is free from editorial control by the college or the Student Association. Falsely branding someone a registered sex offender is libelous on its face, so Councilor Todd is rightly upset, but as far as wrongly labeling someone a taxi company owner, "TUOL" says live and let livery.