By Jon Dougherty
(TNS) The ‘icons’ of the “mainstream media” are having a tough legal time of it in the age of President Donald Trump, having abandoned past journalistic standards and what remained of their integrity to push one false narrative after another.
And finally, the people who have been harmed after being caught up in the fake narratives have had enough.
You recall “Covington Catholic” kid Nick Sandmann; he sued the Washington Post over it’s false characterization of him ‘confronting’ Native American activist Nathan Phillips in January 2019 following a March for Life event in Washington, D.C.
And why? Well, because Nick and some of his friends had the temerity to wear “Make America Great Again” hats and we all know that only Trump-supporting ‘racists’ and ‘bigots’ wear those. Trouble is, video of the ‘confrontation’ that went viral in the aftermath clearly showed Phillips walking over to Sandmann and his friends to beat a ‘war drum’ in their faces.
Initially, a federal judge tossed the Post suit but a subsequent ruling reinstated a portion of it. Ditto for his suit against NBCUniversal. Meanwhile, Sandmann has already settled with CNN for its fake narrative and his lawyers are preparing to sue an additional five outlets, his lawyers announced this week.
Add House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes to the mix.
As promised, the California Republican has also filed a $250 million suit against the Post this week over its continuing effort to push the wholly discredited “Trump-Russia collusion” hoax. As Sara A Carter reports, the suit is in response to a claim by the Post that Nunes went to the White House last month to talk to President Trump about a congressional briefing claiming Russia was going to “meddle” in the 2020 election on the side of the administration.
A 2016 wash, rinse, repeat story, in other words. But this version, like the previous 2016 versions, Nunes says, is equally mythical.
Carter:
Nunes stated that the information published by The Washington Post under Harris’ name, among other writers, was false and continues to propagate a ‘Russia Hoax’ disinformation campaign. According to Harris’s story Trump learned from Nunes about the details of a classified briefing on Feb. 13, to lawmakers by top DNI intelligence election analyst Shelby Pierson. At the closed door briefing with congressional members, Pierson discussed Russia’s continuing effort to interfere in the election process, as well as information that appeared to say the Russians favored Trump winning the election.
Shortly after the briefing was leaked to the press, however, senior intelligence officials noted that Pierson’s analysis to lawmakers was overstated and there was no evidence that Russia’s interference was aimed at getting Trump re-elected.
After Pierson’s briefing, Trump replaced then Acting Director of DNI Joseph Maguire with Richard Grenell, the then Ambassador from the United States to Germany.
The Post also alleged that Nunes told the president Pierson also gave an exclusive briefing to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the Intelligence Committee chairman. In addition, the Post claimed that Nunes’ conversation with Trump about the circumstances surrounding the president’s decision to replace Maguire. The story also alleged that Nunes met with Trump on or around the time that the classified briefing was given to lawmakers.
“The Washington Post was one of the leading proponents of the Russia collusion hoax, and they continue to publish totally false information about me personally,” Nunes told SaraACarter.com Tuesday. “So now they’ll have a chance to defend their fake news stories in court.”
We, obviously, believe in the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press. But the freedom to publish does not include the freedom to lie about events and slander/defame people because you don’t like their politics. If lawsuits are what it takes to cure the mainstream media of its Trump Derangement Syndrome, then so be it.