Unsuccessful Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene says he’ll sue the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald, saying the papers’ stories cost him his bid.
Greene said in a recent interview with the New York Times that two stories about him – one dealing with a California real estate deal, the other dealing with rumored drug use on Greene’s yacht that the paper later clarified – were wrong.
Greene told the Times that he wants “to send a message to every newspaper in the country: Do your homework.”
Neil Brown, editor of the St. Petersburg Times, said in an e-mail to the New York Times that the stories were “thorough and fair, and the reporting is well-documented in public records.”
Greene, who has hired libel lawyer L. Lin Wood, said he will file a claim seeking at least $500 million in damages in circuit court in Miami-Dade County.
The News Service of Florida