HOWARD v. AL JAZEERA AMERICA, LLC et al

Filing 1

COMPLAINT against All Defendants with Jury Demand ( Filing fee $ 400 receipt number 0090-4367752) filed by RYAN JAMES HOWARD. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C, # 4 Exhibit D, # 5 Exhibit E, # 6 Exhibit F, # 7 Exhibit G, # 8 Exhibit H, # 9 Exhibit I, # 10 Exhibit J, # 11 Exhibit K, # 12 Exhibit L, # 13 Exhibit M, # 14 Exhibit N, # 15 Exhibit O, # 16 Exhibit P, # 17 Exhibit Q, # 18 Exhibit R, # 19 Exhibit S, # 20 Exhibit T, # 21 Exhibit U, # 22 Civil Cover Sheet, # 23 Summons AL JAZEERA AMERICA, LLC, # 24 Summons LIAM J. COLLINS, # 25 Summons DEBORAH DAVIES)(Herman, Andrew)

EXHIBIT U

quinn emanuel trial lawyers | washington, dc
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December 28, 2015
VIA E-MAIL AND FEDEX
Robert Corn-Revere
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Suite 800
1919 Pennsylvania avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20006-3401
Re:

Al Jazeera

Dear Mr. Corn-Revere:
We write on behalf of our client Ryan Howard concerning a documentary film entitled
The Dark Side, which your clients Al Jazeera and Deborah Davies published yesterday despite
our clear warnings in prior correspondence that it contained defamatory falsehoods about Mr.
Howard that had been recanted in writing by their sole source. This letter constitutes a formal
demand for retraction by your clients of all defamatory statements in The Dark Side that concern
Mr. Howard by 5:30 p.m. on December 30, 2015.
As you recall, our December 18 and 23 correspondence with you put Al Jazeera and Ms.
Davies on notice that their publication of assertions that Mr. Howard had used any performance
enhancing drug, including the so-called Delta 2, would constitute actionable defamation against
Mr. Howard. Three days later, on December 26, we wrote to you concerning the fact that your
clients’ lone source for these outrageous falsehoods had advised both you and Ms. Davies in
writing that these statements were false and the information he provided to Liam Collins (which
Mr. Collins surreptitiously recorded) was unreliable. We did not receive any response from you.
That same day, Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim posted a video to YouTube in which Mr. Sly
publicly recanted all of the statements Mr. Collins surreptitiously recorded, and stated clearly
that “any recordings or communications that Al Jazeera plans to air are absolutely false and
incorrect . . . and there is no truth to any statement of mine that Al Jazeera plans to air.”

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Al Jazeera then released The Dark Side to the public on the world wide web and by
televised broadcast, choosing to ignore our multiple warnings that The Dark Side contained false
and defamatory statements about Mr. Howard, that Mr. Sly was an unreliable and untrustworthy
source, and indeed, choosing to ignore Mr. Sly’s own unequivocal statements that nothing he
said about Mr. Howard in The Dark Side was true.
As we made clear prior to Al Jazeera’s publication of The Dark Side, the documentary
indeed contained ludicrous falsehoods about Mr. Howard. Portraying Mr. Sly as a “doctor of
pharmacy” who claimed to have dispensed a drug named “Delta 2” to several “football players . .
. and a bunch of baseball players,” The Dark Side characterizes Delta 2 as a “steroid” that MLB
had recently banned and which had “already [been] banned in baseball and football.” The
narration states: “Back in Texas, the pharmacist Charlie Sly named more sportsmen he claims
are linked to Delta 2 in baseball and football. He says he coached them on what to take and how
to avoid testing positive. In a series of conversations crisscrossing Texas, we primed Liam with
questions to dig into the claims.” Depicting a photograph of Mr. Howard with his name
displayed across it, The Dark Side then included the following exchange between Messrs. Sly
and Collins, which asserted that Mr. Howard used Delta 2:
Collins: So with the likes of Howard, once you set him off, is there like a
maintenance thing?
Sly: He is somebody that you cannot overwhelm with stuff. You just make sure
you have everything in bags. He knows to take stuff twice a day. Usually I just
have him like teach it back to me.
Collins: What did he notice in his hitting?
Sly: With the D2?
Collins: Yeah.
Sly: I think maybe just some more explosiveness. He had a couple years where
he had a ton of home runs.
These statements (the “Defamatory Statements”) are unquestionably defamatory. Not
only do these statements assert that Mr. Howard used a banned performance enhancing drug, but
the Defamatory Statements also assert that some of his hard-earned athletic accomplishments
resulted from his purported use of the drug. Mr. Howard denies these accusations in their
entirety – as does Al Jazeera’s sole source for the information.
We demand on Mr. Howard’s behalf that not later than 5:30 p.m. on December 30, 2015,
Al Jazeera and Ms. Davies publish a full and fair retraction in as equally a conspicuous manner
as the Defamatory Statements themselves were published. The retraction must include an
unequivocal statement that the Defamatory Statements were false and without basis, as well as
an apology to Mr. Howard for publishing them. Additionally, Al Jazeera must remove all

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references to Mr. Howard from The Dark Side, including the entirety of the clips in which Mr.
Sly discusses Mr. Howard’s alleged use of Delta 2.
Mr. Howard expressly reserves and does not waive all rights and remedies.
Sincerely,
/s/ William Burck
William A. Burck
Robert L. Raskopf
Kevin S. Reed

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