Case 0:17-cv-60426-UU Document 169 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/04/2018 Page 19 of 22 specific instance of official action. See, e.g., Reuber, 925 F.2d at 712 (“In return for frequent and timely reports on governmental activity, defamation law has traditionally stopped short of imposing extensive investigatory requirements on a news organization reporting on a governmental activity or document.”); see also Holy Spirit Ass’n, 49 N.Y.2d at 68 (holding that the court should not dissect a report with “a lexicographer’s precision.”). For these reasons, the Court cannot conclude as a matter of law that the Article is other than a fair and true report of an official proceeding. See Aguirre 961 F. Supp. 2d at 457. This does not dispose of the case, however, because application of the privilege turns on whether facts essential to its application are undisputed. At this stage, the Court takes as true that the official actions described in the CNN article (the classified briefings and FBI investigation) actually occurred. If discovery reveals that they did not, then there was, in fact, no official action. See Abakporo, 2011 WL 4460547; Test Masters Educ. Servs., Inc., 603 F. Supp. 2d 584 at 588; Bloom v. Fox News of Los Angeles, 528 F. Supp. 2d 69, 76 (E.D.N.Y. 2007). It would, after all, be contrary to the purpose of the privilege to allow the press to falsely report that official action was underway in order to publish otherwise defamatory statements. See generally Williams v. Williams, 23 N.Y.2d 592, 599, 298 N.Y.S.2d 473, 246 N.E.2d 333 (1969) (“[I]t was never the intention of the Legislature in enacting section 74 to allow ‘any person’ to maliciously institute a judicial proceeding alleging false and defamatory charges, and to then circulate a press release or other communication based thereon and escape liability by invoking the statute.”)). C. Neutral Report Privilege Under New York Law The neutral report privilege was first announced by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Edwards v. National Audubon Society, Inc. 556 F.2d 113 (2d Cir. 1977). The court crafted the neutral report privilege as an expansion of the fair report privilege. It applies when the press: 19