Defamatory Washington Post Editorial Reveals Need for Greater Journalistic Scrutiny on Domestic Abuse

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Rebecca Hain: +1-513-479-3335

Defamatory Washington Post Editorial Reveals Need for Greater Journalistic Scrutiny on Domestic Abuse

WASHINGTON / December 27, 2022 – Last week Amber Heard agreed to pay Johnny Depp $1 million to resolve the long-running legal battle over Heard’s defamatory statements about Depp (1). The dispute arose over a December 18, 20018 editorial published in the Washington Post in which she claimed to be a survivor of domestic violence, and made the implausible assertion that she “faced our culture’s wrath” for reporting the incident (2). As a result, Depp was cancelled from future installments of Pirates of the Caribbean (3).

A perusal of the commentary reveals the Washington Post editors did not undertake even basic fact-checking of Heard’s claims. The record does not reveal any third-party evidence of her being a victim of partner abuse, and shows that Heard herself was the domestic abuser:

In 2009, Amber Heard was arrested for assaulting her then-partner Tasya Van Ree in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Charges were not pursued because neither of the women were Washington State residents. The incident was widely reported in the media (4,5,6).
In 2015, Heard threw a vodka bottle at Depp, severing the tip of his finger. The incident triggered extensive media coverage (7,8,9).

But the Washington Post editors apparently made no attempt to locate these articles. The Post has been previously criticized for bias in its coverage of domestic violence stories, revealing a long-standing editorial partiality (10,11).

Over the years, Heard was repeatedly abusive to Depp, sources report. Domestic violence expert Ann Silvers has constructed a timeline of their relationship, concluding that “Amber Heard abused Johnny Depp in most, and possibly all, of the 7 forms of partner abuse (physical, sexual, financial, legal, verbal, spiritual, and emotional/psychological) to the point that she has tortured and tormented him.” (12)

This conclusion is echoed in a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control documenting that more males than females experience sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. Each year, 6.5 million men, compared to 5.6 million women, are victims of such crimes (13). But male victims are less likely to report the abuse (14).

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges all reporters and editors to undertake careful fact-checking of domestic violence claims to assure accuracy, balance, and fairness.

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