If you seek publicity, you might just find it. Just
ask rancher Marcus Rudnick, who was declared a “limited public
figure” by an appeals court judge in Ventura, Calif., on June 13.
The controversy began in San Luis Obispo County in 1991, when
Rudnick put up for lease 75,000 acres he had owned and grazed
cattle on for about 40 years. When the new owners, The Nature
Conservancy, wouldn’t let him graze the land at his discretion,
Rudnick blamed the degraded condition of the land on the
organization and invited reporters in to write about it. In a local
paper, another local rancher, Irv McMillan, wrote a letter to the
editor charging that Rudnick and his destructive grazing practices
were to blame. Rudnick sued McMillian for libel and a 1993 jury
decided in Rudnick’s favor. In his reversal, the appeals judge said
McMillan’s statements were opinion and not defamatory since Rudnick
had sought publicity. He released McMillan from paying Rudnick the
original $32,000 judgment, and ordered Rudnick to pay all trial and
appeal costs. McMillan says he hopes the decision will encourage
more debate, since range reforms are “falling victim to the same
T-bone and whiskey crowd that has always controlled our public
lands.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Rancher finds fame expensive.
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