Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Libel Suits Targeting Corrupt News Outlets Are Piling Up
DB Daily Update ^ | David Blackmon

Posted on 11/23/2019 11:22:57 AM PST by EyesOfTX

One of the most pressing issues facing America today is finding some way to hold corrupt and out of control media outlets accountable for their intentional reporting of blatantly false information as part of their tireless efforts to support the agenda of the Democrat Party. Accomplishing this is very difficult given the state of U.S. law and the protections afforded the press under the first amendment.

As things stand today, seeking to punish these corrupt organizations via the libel laws is essentially the only route available to those they have abused, and it is a very tough road indeed. Regardless, some hardy souls and creative lawyers are making the effort.

On Friday evening, GOP congressman Devin Nunes announced he would soon be filing libel suits against both CNN and The Daily Beast, two of the most corrupt purveyors of fake news on the planet. The Daily Beast filed a report earlier this week alleging that Ukrainian operative Lev Parnas, who has been indicted in the U.S. on campaign finance technicalities, claims that he helped Nunes set up meetings in which he obtained information about Ukraine during a European trip last November.

Nunes says the stories are blatantly and demonstrably false:

“These demonstrably false and scandalous stories published by the Daily Beast and CNN are the perfect example of defamation and reckless disregard for the truth,” Nunes told Breitbart News late Friday night. “Some political operative offered these fake stories to at least five different media outlets before finding someone irresponsible enough to publish them. I look forward to prosecuting these cases, including the media outlets, as well as the sources of their fake stories, to the fullest extent of the law. I intend to hold the Daily Beast and CNN accountable for their actions. They will find themselves in court soon after Thanksgiving.”

Because he has spent the past three years as a leader in the effort to expose the deep state coup cabal within the DOJ and FBI and also led the defense of President Trump during the past two weeks’ impeachment circus, Nunes has been the target of all manner of false reporting by these and other corrupt media organizations. It would be a great blessing for the nation if he could prove his case and win monstrous judgments against both CNN and The Daily Beast.

On Thursday, Covington Catholic High School student Nicolas Sandmann won a crucial judgment in his $275 million libel case against NBC Universal. The judge in that case, U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman, ruled that if NBC’s allegations that Sandmann “blocked” well-known leftist activist Nathan Phillips or “did not allow him to retreat” during their confrontation on the National Mall last year are false, then they are libelous.

As reported by Fox Business on Friday:

Video widely shared online showed Sandmann and Phillips standing close to each other, with Sandmann staring and at times smiling at Phillips as the man continued to beat on a drum. Both Phillips and Sandmann have said they were trying to defuse tensions rising among three groups on a day when Washington hosted both the anti-abortion March for Life, attended by Sandmann and his Covington Catholic High School classmates, and the Indigenous Peoples March.

You will remember that every corrupt fake news organization in America participated in a feeding frenzy following that confrontation in an effort to portray Sandmann and his classmates as a pack of rabid, privileged white kids who bullied a poor “native American” who was just minding his own business when they supposedly descended upon him. We quickly learned – and the video of the incident proved beyond all doubt – that it was in fact the kids who were minding their own business waiting for a bus to arrive to pick them up when Phillips, a notorious leftist agitator with a long history of aggressive behavior, descended on them.

Notably, Judge Bertelsman is also the presiding judge in Sandmann’s similar cases against CNN and the Washington Post, and has also ruled in Sandmann’s favor on these issues in those cases. With any luck, Sandmann will ultmately prevail in all three cases.

Who knows, given that CNN is already a money-losing proposition, maybe a couple of judgments totaling half a billion dollars or so would give its owners at AT&T cause to consider whether their ongoing support for CNN’s Goebbels-like fake news operation is worth bearing the cost and reputational damage.

We can always hope. For America to survive in its current form, we must find some means of enforcing accountability in our intentionally-fake news media establishment. If the libel laws can’t be made to work, some other, probably uglier, alternatives will have to be found.

That is all.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Humor; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: fakenews; mediabias; trump; trumpwinsagain

1 posted on 11/23/2019 11:22:57 AM PST by EyesOfTX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

GOOD!

It’s time push back happened and to use their own weapons against them.

Prayers for success of this.


2 posted on 11/23/2019 11:26:18 AM PST by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

I hope this is the beginning of a collective butt kicking of The Swamp and their media handlers!


3 posted on 11/23/2019 11:30:26 AM PST by dowcaet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

These suits probably go nowhere, like it or not.

It is true in Nunes’ case that CNN reported that Parnas *SAID* XYZ. And at some point he may have, or, there could be a recording of Parnas saying XYZ. Thus, CNN did not misreport. We shall see that CNN almost certainly did NOT report that XYZ was TRUE. There is almost always this kind of deliberate hearsay gap, and it will prove fatal to lawsuits such as Nunes’.

Nevertheless, the propaganda effect of this type of reporting is absolutely real. I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.


4 posted on 11/23/2019 11:41:35 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

Excellent! Corrupt, mendacious “news” outlets should be forced to be truthful.


5 posted on 11/23/2019 11:41:52 AM PST by Savage Beast
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

The media is so pathetic I’m not sure it makes any sense to give them the legal protections they’ve historically enjoyed.


6 posted on 11/23/2019 12:03:34 PM PST by Brilliant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

Excellently written article with proper adjectives describing the propaganda arm of the DNC.


7 posted on 11/23/2019 1:43:11 PM PST by The Truth Will Make You Free
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyesOfTX

I don’t think you can fight them through legal channels - only by competing to attract audiences by offering honest journalism and credible debate.

Most people don’t like being lied and condescended to, and because of that the Left is driving away it’s more intelligent viewers in droves.

The example I always use is the way taxi cab drivers were able to use licensing to shut out competition and prop up above market prices.

But you can only piss people off for so long. Then along came Uber.

The ABCNNBCBS NYTWP media cartel believes it has an unbreakable monopoly, but that is just not true. They are overplaying their hand and the high information viewers have already left them. It is just a matter of time before this awareness trickles down to the low information folks and the fake news will go the way of the dodo bird.

I think 2020 will be a year of reckoning for the fake news. The impeachment hearings, touted as the end for Trump, are proving otherwise. The Senate trial will have a completely opposite outcome from what the fake news is predicting, and a Trump electoral landslide will again take them completely by surprise. Other major stories throughout the year will catch them flat footed and ABCNNBCBS will begin to fall apart.

What will it look like? I figure it won’t be long before CNN and MSNBC merge, and then begin trying to stay afloat by running M.A.S.H. reruns or some sort of QVC during prime time rather than so-called news programs.

Their news content is already a loss-leader and their owners will eventually grow tired of subsidizing it. They will look for other ways to ply their propaganda.


8 posted on 11/23/2019 2:26:37 PM PST by enumerated
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: enumerated
I don’t think you can fight them through legal channels - only by competing to attract audiences by offering honest journalism and credible debate.
“Honest journalism and credible debate” is precisely the trademark of talk radio.

The fundamental problem is that the journalism cartel - protected by the New York Times v. Sullivan decision - is free to publish libel of anyone who’s not a “objective journalist” or a “liberal”(who as such could put on a journalist hat and instantly be accepted as as a “objective journalist”). A case must be brought to SCOTUS, and SCOTUS must accept the Scalia position that the Bill of Rights weakened no right - including access to court for redress of libel.

Thus, the “liberals” will no longer be entitled not only to their own opinions but their own facts.

“Objective” journalism thus will die - and philosophy (“talk radio”) will stand level with sophistry rather than being relegated to second class standing.


9 posted on 11/23/2019 7:58:59 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson