A previous post reviewed the attack on the free exercise of religion that one dictatorial mayor in Greenville, Mississippi engaged in. Of course, he is not the only tinpot dictator that has emerged in America during this COVID-19 event. Multiple other government officials at different levels have engaged in similar attempts to interfere with the exercising of an American’s freedom of religion. Would-be dictators have been coming out of the woodwork across the country.
As mentioned in the previous post, the left is using the current COVID-19 crisis to attack the foundational freedoms all Americans enjoy. As night follows day, so do the attacks on our different freedoms. The authoritarian nature of some people in power has been bubbling to the surface.
This post is about an attack on the basic core value of freedom of speech. A lawsuit has been filed in the Superior Court of Washington against Fox News, by the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE). WASHLITE is asking that the court “keep the cable network from airing false information about the [coronavirus] pandemic.”
WASHLITE is attempting to use the Washington State Consumer Protection Act as the wedge to abridge freedom of speech. WASHLITE was represented by an attorney, Elizabeth Hallock, who is running for governor.
Fox News’ has filed a 76-page motion in the same Washington state court to dismiss the WASHLITE lawsuit.
This is a frontal assault on the freedom of speech. No matter what your view of Fox News is, such speech as detailed in this lawsuit is political speech. To allow a plaintiff to file a suit because they do not like the speech, is outrageous. This is a clear attempt to chill speech that one does not like.
This complaint is also deceptive by hiding behind a Consumer Protection law. It should be dismissed outright as frivolous with monetary awards to Fox News for their costs in defending this.
Fox News’s defense gets to the heart of the matter immediately:
I am certain that Democratic strategists around the country are watching this lawsuit. If this suit has any kind of success, one can expect to see such lawsuits to become commonplace. This would mean that if one did not like a particular Fox News presentation, one would only have to search around for some arcane interpretation of a law to file suit.
What is even scarier here is the claim that Fox News engaged in behavior that led to “preventable mass death.” How long will it be before some James Hodgkinson wannabe decides to shoot up a Fox News studio because they are “killing people?”
In a side note, Hallock withdrew from the case once Fox News filed its motion to dismiss. Where this case goes is anybody’s guess. It could wind up being laughed out of court. Or it could wind being a case study in just what our foundational rights are. Time will tell.
