Posted on 07/26/2019 6:52:53 PM PDT by Magnatron
A federal judge in Kentucky Friday threw out a defamation lawsuit filed against The Washington Post by Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann and his family over the paper's reporting of an incident between the young man and a Native American man this past January in Washington.
The lawsuit, which was filed in February, sought $250 million in damages and accused the Post of practicing "a modern-day form of McCarthyism" by targeting Sandmann and "using its vast financial resources to enter the bully pulpit by publishing a series of false and defamatory print and online articles ... to smear a young boy who was in its view an acceptable casualty in their war against the president."
Sandmann became the focus of outrage after a video of him standing face-to-face with a Native American man, Nathan Phillips, while wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat surfaced and rapidly spread online. Sandmann was one of a group of Covington students attending the anti-abortion March for Life in Washington, D.C., while Phillips was attending the Indigenous Peoples' March on the same day.
In a 36-page ruling, U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman noted that the Post never mentioned Sandmann by name in its initial coverage of the incident, referring only to groups of "hat wearing teens." Bertelsman added that "the words used contain no reflection upon any particular individual" and thus could not be constituted as defamation. The judge also ruled that the newspaper used language that was "loose, figurative," and "rhetorical hyperbole" which is protected by the First Amendment.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Would the rules apply if I say people should beat the crap out of black robed Carter appointed judges sine I didn’t name him?
Judge cherry-picks “initial coverage”. nice. hope there’s an appeal.
I wonder if he farmed out the judgement in Mueller fashion.
******************************************
Of course he did. These judges all have young lawyers who scramble to serve as “law clerks” for Federal Judges and Justices. He would have, of course, had discussions with the law clerks and reviewed and possibly edited the final product.
Liberal judge is in bed with Jeff Bozo the Clown I guess...
they aren’t- they threw it out supposedly because the post printed an opinion of the indian— which while it turned out to be false, it was’ protected by free speech’ or some such malarky- apparently the judge felt the post didn’t have an obligation to check out whether it was true or not- The post was ‘simply printing an opinion of someone who itnerprete4d things in a way that later turned out to be false-’ -
The judge essentially was implying that wapo didn’t know the story by the indian was false- so wapo is off the hook
So in other words- apparently- according to today’s ruling- the left wing media can concoct any story they like by getting people to falsely claim things against conservatives- slandering them and libeling them- ruining their lives in the process- and all the msm has to do is say they printed opinions- and that’s just A-OK with the courts
“They may have been erroneous ... but they are opinion protected by The First Amendment,” Bertelsman wrote.
So there ya have it folks- if you work for a news outlet- and ya wanna destroy someone’s life- get some lackey to voice an opinion, false one at that- about the person, print it- hype the crowds up and job is done and according to that judge, it’s all protected free speech and noone is held accountable for whatever transpires!
I’m confused...was the “initial coverage” of the incident an editorial? If not I guess according to this judge straight news reporting is okay even if it’s “loose, figurative and rhetorical hyperbole” rather than fact. In other words news outlets can just make stuff up?
Commie traitor
Yes indeed
The paper showed photo’s of the young man. Isn’t that proof enough?
Of course it’s enough. But it’s open season on conservatives.
The fight has only just begun. It’s not over yet.
will be appealed by family according to the article...
All about pivoting the narrative back to racist Trump supporters in light of the Mueller hearings not being the end of Trump (yet!).
Sandman p’s lawyer is top shelf southern accented slick as shit lawyer for this sort of thing
He’s a giant killer with a track record
I recall some liberal judge in Florida threw out George Zimmerman’s lawsuit against NBC over the deliberately edited 911 call featured on Dateline NBC. That should have been a slam dunk as well.
Just protecting their Brother’s in Arms, nothing more.
As we all know, to do otherwise drops the hammer on the Post. I’m sure most of us, or at least some of us, do the same thing, we hear about a decision like this. One that, more or less, allows the Left to not be held accountable for their actions and statements, to be able to continue what they’re doing and we see the judges name. We then copy and paste the name in a search engine to find out who nominated the judge.
Lo and behold, when decisions like this come down, it’s one of three(most of the time).... carter, clinton, or the previous occupant of the White House. And, if pushed, in more cases than not, their decisions are overturned. Their bias is on full display and they don’t care. It’s as if they’re daring the people to do something about it.
Perhaps, one day in the not so distant future, something will be done about it, maybe not.
At some point the 3%’ers, Oath Keepers and others that purport to be like them are going to have hoist that black flag and get some work done. It’s coming.
Does “The Right” ever judge shop, like the Left does?
Does “The Right” have insiders in the system to make sure cases go to certain courtrooms and judges, like it appears the Left does?
Asking for a friend.
This guy was appointed by Jimmy Carter... talk about having been on the bench too long.
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.