In a hearing for the defamation case of Zachary Young v. The Associate Press on Tuesday, the AP’s lawyer argued to a panel of three judges for Florida’s First District Court of Appeal that the news organization’s own stylebook didn’t matter when determining the definition of a key word in their allegedly defamatory reporting. However, the AP Stylebook was the go-to standard for many newsrooms and students around the world.
As NewsBusters previously reported, the AP’s use of the term “smuggling” was a key part of Young’s case against the newswire, which saw many outlets parrot its allegedly defamatory words. The hearing was part of Young’s hope to get his defamation lawsuits against AP and Puck News back on track after they were tossed out in August 2025.
Read Full Article: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/06/09/defamation-hearing-aps-lawyer-argues-their-stylebook-should
