Is Evel Knievel a Pimp?

[Mullins, Bill]

>From the Sports Law Blog
http://sports-law.blogspot.com/2005/01/not-defamatory-evel-famous-darede
vil.html


"Famous daredevil Evel Knievel had his lawsuit against ESPN thrown out
by a federal appeals court yesterday. Knievel and his wife had sued ESPN
for defamation stemming from a caption to a picture posted on its
website (which has since been taken down). The picture, of Knievel and
his wife, had a caption that read: "Evel Knievel proves that you're
never too old to be a pimp."

This is of interest because the decision centered on the various slang
meanings of the word "pimp".  The court, whose decision is linked in the
above blog entry, determined that in this case, a non-literal meaning
should be inferred, based on the context and appearance of many other
slang terms; therefore it was not reasonable to assume or infer (as,
apparently Knievel and/or his attorneys did) that ESPN was saying that
Evel Knievel was in fact a pimp, and had turned out his wife.

The decision cites Lighter's HDAS.  Jon is now a part of legal history
(and may have been for some time, for all I know).