The protagonist in Jared Diamond’s 2008 New Yorker story, “Vengeance is Ours,” is suing the magazine’s publisher for $10 million, “claiming Diamond’s story falsely accused [the protagonist, Daniel Wemp, a member of New Guinea’s Handa clan] and fellow tribesman Isum Mandigo of ‘serious criminal activity’ and ‘murder.'” Diamond is a “Pulitzer Prize-winning geography scholar,” a “best-selling author and winner of a National Science Medal and the MacArthur Foundation’s ‘genius award.'”
(If this ever actually went to trial, it almost sounds like it has the makings of something the New Yorker might otherwise chronicle — “Annals of Law?” “Letter from New York State Supreme Court”? And, would the notorious New Yorker fact-checkers take the stand)?
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.