McFADDEN, Justice.
The plaintiffs, S. N. Weeks, Walter C. Bentzinger and Elwin L. Tinker, instituted this action seeking general damages claimed to have arisen from a publication of an editorial in the North Side News, a weekly newspaper published at Jerome, Idaho. Defendant M-P Publications, Inc., is the corporate publisher of the newspaper and the two individual defendants are the publishers of the paper.
The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint, or in the alternative to grant summary judgment in their favor. Their motion was supported by affidavits, one of which had attached as an exhibit the front page of the newspaper containing the alleged defamatory material. The trial court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss and this appeal resulted.
Plaintiffs’ sole assignment of error brings before this court the issue of whether the trial court erred in dismissing their complaint.
Plaintiffs in their complaint allege that they are members of the city council of Jerome, and that the defendants, the publishers of the weekly Northside News, caused to be printed a malicious, false and libelous editorial concerning them.1 This [636]*636editorial captioned “Editorial Opinion, Abusive Government,” appeared on the front page of the newspaper on January 6, 1972. They further alleged that the article was designed to defame and damage the plaintiffs both in their official positions and individually.
The trial court in ruling on the defendants’ motion to dismiss stated in a memorandum opinion:
“It seems to me that at most the language complained of is unpleasant, annoying and irksome and may well have subjected the plaintiffs to jest or banter so as to affect their feelings all of which creates something less than libel per se. It is impossible for me to believe that these statements, obnoxious though they may be, tend to expose plaintiffs to public hatred, contempt or disgrace.”
It is the position of the plaintiffs on this appeal that the words used by the defendants are libelous per se. It is worthy of note that the plaintiffs allege only two of the statements out of the editorial are libelous per se, • i. e., “teeny tyrants” and “these three stooges.” In this case the plaintiffs have not alleged that they suffered any special damages, but only alleged that they suffered general damages, and their prayer for relief was for general damages only.
Although there is a division of authority in other jurisdictions (see, Annot. 86 A.L.R. 848 [1933] ; Restatement, Torts §§ 568, 569 [1938]), in Idaho the rule is that in order to maintain a libel action without a plea of special damages, a plaintiff must establish that the words complained of are libelous per se. Jenness v. Co-operative Publishing Co., 36 Idaho 697, 213 P. 351 (1923); Gough ,v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
The issue presented is whether the court or the jury (or finder of the facts) should determine whether the particular words employed are libelous per se. In other words, is it a matter of law or is it a matter of fact whether certain words used in an alleged defamatory publication amount to libel per se. This court held in Bistline v. Eberle, 88 Idaho 473, 401 P.2d 555 (1965), that if the language used is plain and unambiguous, it is a question of law for the court to determine whether it is libelous per se, otherwise it is a question of fact for the trier of fact. See also, Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
Both parties to this appeal invite the court to examine the published material (Exhibit 1) to determine the question of whether the challenged portions are libelous per se. The whole record is thus before the court for this purpose. Stewart v. Arrington Const. Co., 92 Idaho 526, 446 P. 2d 895 (1968). See, Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 73 Idaho 173, 249 P.2d 192 (1952), Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
In its examination of this printed material this court must keep in mind certain rules previously adopted.
“In determining the defamatory character of a. publication the article must be read and construed as a whole; the words used are to be given their common and usually accepted meaning and are to be read and interpreted as they would be read and understood by the persons to whom they are published.” Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502 at 508, 275 P.2d 663, at 666 (1954).
In Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 73 Idaho 173, 249 P.2d 192 (1952), the court in deciding what words are to be considered as libelous per se, stated:
“ ‘In order to be libelous per se, the defamatory words must be of such a na[637]*637ture that the court can presume as a matter of law that they will tend to disgrace and degrade the person or hold him up to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule or cause him to be shunned and avoided; in other words, they must reflect on his integrity, his character, and his good name and standing in the community, and tend to expose him to public hatred, contempt or disgrace. The imputation must be one which tends to affect plaintiff in a class of society whose standard of opinion the court can recognize. It is not sufficient, standing alone, that the language is unpleasant and annoys or irks plaintiff, and subject him to jests or banter, so as to affect his feelings’ (Emphasis supplied.)” 73
Idaho at 179, 249 P.2d at 195.
In this case the trial court considered an action instituted by county commissioners for defamatory statements concerning official actions taken by them as public officials and held that the article reporting their actions as public officials was not libelous per se.
In 1964 the United States Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686, interjected new concepts into the law of libel applicable to public officials. In the New York Times case, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment, by reason of the Fourteenth Amendment, was applicable to all the states of the union. The Court unequivocally stated that “libel can claim no talismanic immunity from constitutional limitations. It must be measured by standards that satisfy the First Amendment.” New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 272-273, 84 S.Ct. at 720. Within this context the Court rejected falsity of factual statement or harm to the public official or both as grounds for repressing speech which would otherwise be free.
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McFADDEN, Justice.
The plaintiffs, S. N. Weeks, Walter C. Bentzinger and Elwin L. Tinker, instituted this action seeking general damages claimed to have arisen from a publication of an editorial in the North Side News, a weekly newspaper published at Jerome, Idaho. Defendant M-P Publications, Inc., is the corporate publisher of the newspaper and the two individual defendants are the publishers of the paper.
The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint, or in the alternative to grant summary judgment in their favor. Their motion was supported by affidavits, one of which had attached as an exhibit the front page of the newspaper containing the alleged defamatory material. The trial court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss and this appeal resulted.
Plaintiffs’ sole assignment of error brings before this court the issue of whether the trial court erred in dismissing their complaint.
Plaintiffs in their complaint allege that they are members of the city council of Jerome, and that the defendants, the publishers of the weekly Northside News, caused to be printed a malicious, false and libelous editorial concerning them.1 This [636]*636editorial captioned “Editorial Opinion, Abusive Government,” appeared on the front page of the newspaper on January 6, 1972. They further alleged that the article was designed to defame and damage the plaintiffs both in their official positions and individually.
The trial court in ruling on the defendants’ motion to dismiss stated in a memorandum opinion:
“It seems to me that at most the language complained of is unpleasant, annoying and irksome and may well have subjected the plaintiffs to jest or banter so as to affect their feelings all of which creates something less than libel per se. It is impossible for me to believe that these statements, obnoxious though they may be, tend to expose plaintiffs to public hatred, contempt or disgrace.”
It is the position of the plaintiffs on this appeal that the words used by the defendants are libelous per se. It is worthy of note that the plaintiffs allege only two of the statements out of the editorial are libelous per se, • i. e., “teeny tyrants” and “these three stooges.” In this case the plaintiffs have not alleged that they suffered any special damages, but only alleged that they suffered general damages, and their prayer for relief was for general damages only.
Although there is a division of authority in other jurisdictions (see, Annot. 86 A.L.R. 848 [1933] ; Restatement, Torts §§ 568, 569 [1938]), in Idaho the rule is that in order to maintain a libel action without a plea of special damages, a plaintiff must establish that the words complained of are libelous per se. Jenness v. Co-operative Publishing Co., 36 Idaho 697, 213 P. 351 (1923); Gough ,v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
The issue presented is whether the court or the jury (or finder of the facts) should determine whether the particular words employed are libelous per se. In other words, is it a matter of law or is it a matter of fact whether certain words used in an alleged defamatory publication amount to libel per se. This court held in Bistline v. Eberle, 88 Idaho 473, 401 P.2d 555 (1965), that if the language used is plain and unambiguous, it is a question of law for the court to determine whether it is libelous per se, otherwise it is a question of fact for the trier of fact. See also, Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
Both parties to this appeal invite the court to examine the published material (Exhibit 1) to determine the question of whether the challenged portions are libelous per se. The whole record is thus before the court for this purpose. Stewart v. Arrington Const. Co., 92 Idaho 526, 446 P. 2d 895 (1968). See, Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 73 Idaho 173, 249 P.2d 192 (1952), Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
In its examination of this printed material this court must keep in mind certain rules previously adopted.
“In determining the defamatory character of a. publication the article must be read and construed as a whole; the words used are to be given their common and usually accepted meaning and are to be read and interpreted as they would be read and understood by the persons to whom they are published.” Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502 at 508, 275 P.2d 663, at 666 (1954).
In Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 73 Idaho 173, 249 P.2d 192 (1952), the court in deciding what words are to be considered as libelous per se, stated:
“ ‘In order to be libelous per se, the defamatory words must be of such a na[637]*637ture that the court can presume as a matter of law that they will tend to disgrace and degrade the person or hold him up to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule or cause him to be shunned and avoided; in other words, they must reflect on his integrity, his character, and his good name and standing in the community, and tend to expose him to public hatred, contempt or disgrace. The imputation must be one which tends to affect plaintiff in a class of society whose standard of opinion the court can recognize. It is not sufficient, standing alone, that the language is unpleasant and annoys or irks plaintiff, and subject him to jests or banter, so as to affect his feelings’ (Emphasis supplied.)” 73
Idaho at 179, 249 P.2d at 195.
In this case the trial court considered an action instituted by county commissioners for defamatory statements concerning official actions taken by them as public officials and held that the article reporting their actions as public officials was not libelous per se.
In 1964 the United States Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686, interjected new concepts into the law of libel applicable to public officials. In the New York Times case, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment, by reason of the Fourteenth Amendment, was applicable to all the states of the union. The Court unequivocally stated that “libel can claim no talismanic immunity from constitutional limitations. It must be measured by standards that satisfy the First Amendment.” New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 272-273, 84 S.Ct. at 720. Within this context the Court rejected falsity of factual statement or harm to the public official or both as grounds for repressing speech which would otherwise be free. In rejecting the conjunction of factual error and injury to official reputation as providing a prima facie case, the Court stated: “[tjhis is the lesson to be drawn from the great controversy over the Sedition Act of 1798 * * * which first crystallized a national awareness of the central meaning of the First Amendment.” The Court held that privilege of “fair comment” was raised to constitutional level. See, William J. Brennan, Jr., Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, The Supreme Court and the Meiklejohn Interpretation of the First Amendment, 79 Harv.L.Rev. 1; Kalven, The New York Times Case; A Note on the “Central Meaning of the First Amendment,” 1964 Sup.Ct.Rev. 191; Prosser, Torts, § 118 (4th ed., 1971). The Court not only recognized the qualified privilege of “fair comment” upon the conduct and qualifications of public officials, but also held that a broader privilege extended to protect a publisher against false statements of fact, provided they were made without “malice,” i. e., a knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard of its truth or falsity.
Subsequent to the New York Times case, in several cases, the United States Supreme Court reiterated the definition of “malice” and held that actual ill will and a desire to do harm was not sufficient to defeat the privilege, Henry v. Collins, 380 U.S. 356, 85 S.Ct. 992, 13 L.Ed.2d 892 (1965), nor was mere negligence in publishing the defamation without verification, St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 20 L.Ed.2d 262 (1968), nor was mere hatred, Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 85 S.Ct. 209, 13 L.Ed.2d 125 (1964).
In reading this editorial it is apparent that the publishers were perturbed at the actions taken by the council members in dismissal of the chief of police and were expressing themselves on public actions taken by them. It is further apparent from this editorial that the publishers were striving to seek redress for the asserted injustice by way of promoting further action by the citizens of the community. We find nothing ambiguous in this editorial and thus, as previously pointed out, whether it is libelous per se is a matter of law for resolution by the court. Gough v. Tribune-Journal Co., 75 Idaho 502, 275 P.2d 663 (1954).
[638]*638In Jenness v. Co-operative Publishing Co., supra, 36 Idaho at 702, 213 P. at 353, the court in considering an allegedly libelous newspaper article, in language appropriate to the case, stated:
“While this article could not be called a classic in English literature, it is evident that the writer did not intend that it should be táken literally, but rather as a hyperbole of speech, and it would be so understood by the ordinary reader. It is not an unusual example of that form of ribaldry resorted to by a class of writers in describing the acts and conduct of their rivals or those they seek to criticize, where such writers have not the necessary skill or cleverness to express themselves in a more parliamentary manner. The article is an exemplification of a form of caricature that frequently appears, but in a more approved and refined form, in the current newspapers of the day, whereby they attempt to emphasize and set forth the shortcomings of men prominent in public life, or political parties, or reform movements against which the writer is seeking to create an adverse public opinion. Many of these writings and cartoons appearing in the public press are often useful in creating and directing public opinion toward needed reforms or the suppression of evil. If the law should hold all this class of articles, whether by pictures or writing, actionable per se, without a showing of malice or pecuniary loss to the party alleged to have been injured, it would so effectively restrain the press and tend to prevent it from giving the needed publicity to matters of vital importance to the public welfare that it would greatly impair one of the most potent influences for good we have, for all experience shows that there is no power so great in suppressing wrong as its pitiless exposure in the public press.”
See also, Klahr v. Winterble, 4 Ariz.App. 158, 418 P.2d 404 (1966); Roane v. Columbian Pub. Co., 126 Wash. 416, 218 P. 213 (1923); Cohen v. New York Herald Tribune, Inc., 63 Misc.2d 87, 310 N.Y.S.2d 709 (1970).
In Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Ass’n v. Bresler, 398 U.S. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1537, 26 L.Ed.2d 6 (1970), a real estate developer, Bresler, was involved in negotiations with the city council to obtain certain zoning ordinances for the construction of high-density housing on land owned by him. At the same time the city council was trying to acquire a tract of land from Bresler for a school. A newspaper characterized Bresler’s negotiations as “blackmail.” Noting that Bresler was a public figure while engaged in the negotiations, the Court held that the word “blackmail” as a matter of constitutional law was not slander when spoken in these circumstances and not libel when reported in the newspaper. The Court viewed the use of the word “blackmail” as simply “rhetorical hyperbole, a vigorous epithet used by those who considered Bresler’s negotiating position extremely unreasonable.” 398 U.S. 14, 90 S.Ct. 1542. In reaching this conclusion the Court emphasized the importance of a local newspaper concerned with matters of local governmental interest.
“ ‘The maintenance of the opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes may be obtained by lawful means * * * is a fundamental principle of our constitutional system.’ Stromberg v. California, supra, 283 U.S. [359] 369, 51 S.Ct. [532] 536 [75 L.Ed. 1117].” 398 U.S. at 11, 12, 90 S.Ct. at 1540.
See, Beckley Newspapers Corp. v. Hanks, 389 U.S. 81, 88 S.Ct. 197, 19 L.Ed.2d 248 (1967).
There can be no doubt that the circumstances surrounding the firing of Chief Puntney by the appellant city councilmen were subject to lively debate and substantial concern to all those who lived in the community. According to an article accompanying the editorial, citizens petitioned the appellants to retain chief Puntney prior to his dismissal; and after appellants fired Chief Puntney local high school [639]*639students paraded through the main streets of Jerome protesting the appellants’ decision.
The appellants as public officials in the exercise of their official duties are not immune from the criticism and censure of public debate. The appellants voluntarily entered the arena of public debate and should not complain over ribald or robust criticism of their public action. Political epithets and hyperbole leveled against the actions of public officials are within the freedom of expression protected by the First Amendment afforded to citizens criticizing the function of their government. The editorial opinion contains words and phrases highly critical of the appellants which are nothing more than hardy, uninhibited statements. The editorial opinion under its title “Abusive Government,” quoted from the Declaration of Independence: “ . . . It is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . . ” The unambiguous language of the editorial exhorts the citizenry to take action and to become involved against the appellants, while it characterizes the appellants’ action as the result of “personal vendetta” and labels them as “three little men” and “three teeny tyrants.” As Justice Brennan pointed out in New York Times v. Sullivan, supra, the concept of séditious libel lends to self-censorship and strikes at the very heart of democracy. In essence, political freedom ends when the government can use the courts to silence, to chill or to dampen the vigor of public debate.
The judgment of dismissal is affirmed. Costs to respondents.
DONALDSON, C. J., and McQUADE and BAKES, J J., concur.