What's the background story to Rosenblatt v. Baer?

Question

I have the information on the decision but I can't find the story of what led up to the case. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

From the Supreme Court Document:
"Respondent, the former supervisor of a county recreation area who was employed by and responsible to the three county Commissioners, brought this civil libel action in a New Hampshire state court against petitioner whose newspaper column allegedly criticized the fiscal management of the area under respondent's regime and asked the questions, "What happened to all the money last year? and every other year?" Respondent offered extrinsic proofs that the column imputed mismanagement and peculation during respondent's tenure on the theories (1) that the jury could award respondent damages if it found that the column cast suspicion indiscriminately on the former small management group whether or not it attributed the misconduct specifically to respondent and (2) that the column was read as specifically referring to respondent as the person responsible for the area's financial affairs. The jury was instructed that "an implication of crime to one or some of a small group that casts suspicion on all is actionable," and that defamatory comment was justified if made without malice and represented fair comment on matters of public interest, "malice" being defined to include "ill will, evil motive, intention to injure . . ." and the jury was permitted to find that negligent misstatement of fact would defeat petitioner's privilege of free expression. The jury awarded respondent damages and the State Supreme Court affirmed, finding no bar in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 , which had been decided after the trial."

The rest of the decision has more quotations and explanations of the issues that lead up to the case.