Former local news anchor sues rival station for defamation over report he says portrayed him as a ‘child predator’

A former local news anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana, has sued a rival station for defamation, accusing it of engaging in “character assassination” after it ran a report he says portrayed him as a “child predator.”

A former local news anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana, has sued a rival station for defamation, accusing it of engaging in “character assassination” after it ran a report he says portrayed him as a “child predator.” Emmy Award-winning journalist Bill Lunn, a former anchor for ABC affiliate KTBS, filed the lawsuit late last month against rival local outlet KTAL, its married co-anchors Daniel and Jacquelyn Jovic, and its owner, Nexstar. The complaint was filed almost one year after Lunn resigned from KTBS in advance of a KTAL report claiming Lunn had been busted by “vigilantes targeting men seeking to prey on underage girls.” Lunn had been cleared by a police investigation, and no charges were filed — a fact KTAL included in its report. Nevertheless, the former anchor said in his lawsuit that KTAL and Nexstar failed to “vet, edit or confirm allegations that labeled him a child predator.” Lunn resigned to spare his employer any embarrassment, he said in the lawsuit, “with the intention and hope to return to work once the facts cleared his name.” However, the lawsuit alleges the KTAL report ultimately “ended his career in broadcast journalism.” The former anchor alleged that KTAL targeted him because of their two stations’ rivalry in the Shreveport market. “Jovic and his co-Defendants seized on the opportunity to bend the facts to their will in an attempt (to) take out or otherwise substantially interfere with the market leader and their direct competitor, Lunn,” the lawsuit alleges. Lunn downloaded the popular dating app Tinder on May 27, 2024, and was sent a message of “interest” from a person he thought was a 19-year-old woman the same day, according to the lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, Lunn was asked to text the woman on her cellphone, after which she “initiated a sexually explicit exchange.”