Free Republic

Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted one political enemy after another, from removing a top state prosecutor in Tampa who disagreed with him on abortion rights to promoting an “anti-woke” agenda that limits teaching about racism in public schools and diversity hiring programs at universities. He even went after business behemoth Disney when its CEO opposed an educational bill, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Now, Florida lawmakers — with the support of the governor — are taking aim at the media, pushing legislation that would dramatically weaken legal standards in place for more than a half century...

Politico has rewritten the headline, lede, and several portions of the text of an article accusing Ben Carson of "fabricating" part of his personal biography involving the Military Academy at West Point. The story, bearing the byline of reporter Kyle Cheney, now omits the original version's declarations that Carson's statements were false or fraudulent, as seen in an archive of the article.

WASHINGTON - Alcalde & Fay partner Vicki Iseman has settled her $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and several of its reporters. Iseman, a Washington lobbyist, sued the Times over a story published last February during the presidential campaign season that she claimed inaccurately depicted her as having an affair with Republican candidate Sen. John McCain. Iseman says, "I am pleased that The New York Times on behalf of its reporters, editors and company has issued a retraction and clarification." Iseman’s statement continues, "The New York Times, its reporters and editors, should and must be held accountable...

Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman has filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress. The suit also names the executive editor of the Times, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters who wrote the story as defendants. William Keller,...

This thread is an update on Rall's attempt to sue Ann Coulter. Rall now says he does want to sue Coulter for a joke she made about him, but it's going to cost a lot of money. He previously asked for cash just for the filing. He now wants a whole lot more cash to pursue legal action. He's asking for donations, since (surprise, surprise) his lawyer won't work on a contingency basis. The strong of stomach can read the whole thing at http://www.tedrall.com/rants.html. He can't draw, he can't write, he has a thin skin, and now he's a shyster...

NEW YORK: The New York Times on Wednesday retracted the basis of a story in Tuesday's paper that erroneously reported that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts had authored an unsigned memo on libel law. In an unusual move, the newspaper published two versions of the correction, one on the regular A-2 corrections page, and another on A22 in the national news section, which ran 243 words. The second version was also written by the same writer of the original story, Adam Liptak. Liptak's first story, published on an inside A section page, reported that a multi-paged memo on the precedent-setting...

September 28, 2005 Libel Memorandum Attributed Falsely to Court Nominee By ADAM LIPTAK Judge John G. Roberts Jr., nominated to be chief justice of the United States, was not the author of an unsigned memorandum on libel law that was the focus of an article published in The New York Times yesterday. The Times erroneously attributed it to him. Bruce Fein, a Washington lawyer who was general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission in the Reagan administration, said yesterday that he wrote the memorandum, a caustic critique of New York Times v. Sullivan, the 1964 Supreme Court decision that revolutionized...