FOX News Defends First Amendment Freedoms in Motion to Dismiss WASHLITE Suit Over Coronavirus Coverage
April 14 2020 - 5:37PM
Business Wire
FOX News Media has moved to dismiss a lawsuit by the Washington
League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) seeking to
restrain the network’s Coronavirus coverage, announced Christopher
Lovrien, most recently the Partner-in-Charge of the California
Region of Jones Day, which filed the motion on behalf of FOX.
The motion, filed today, asks that a Washington State trial
court firmly and swiftly reject the claims filed by WASHLITE, an
activist group seeking to impose a judicial gag order on FOX
opinion commentary regarding the Coronavirus outbreak. As explained
in the motion, WASHLITE’s “claims here are frivolous because the
statements at issue are core political speech on matters of public
concern. The First Amendment does not permit censoring this type of
speech based on the theory that it is ‘false’ or ‘outrageous.’ Nor
does the law of the State of Washington.” Accordingly, the motion
calls upon the court to dismiss as a matter of law WASHLITE’s
misguided attempt to use a lawsuit to stifle Fox News commentary or
the viewpoints of its hosts.
The motion to dismiss characterizes the WASHLITE complaint as a
“frontal assault on the freedom of speech” that “flagrantly
violates the First Amendment and fails to state a claim.” The
motion further explains that “Fox’s statements are core political
speech on a matter of public concern—how dangerous the Coronavirus
is, and how society should respond to it. Under the First Amendment
and state law, the truth or falsity of this type of speech must be
resolved through free and open debate in the marketplace of
ideas—not through burdensome litigation seeking to impose legal
penalties on political statements that a jury might deem ‘false’ or
‘outrageous.’”
The WASHLITE complaint was filed as a self-described “citizen’s
action” against FOX News Channel, among other named defendants, on
April 2nd but was almost immediately and universally dismissed by
legal scholars and media critics alike as lacking merit.
FOX News Media General Counsel and Executive Vice President,
Lily Fu Claffee commented, “It’s Constitutional Law 101: the First
Amendment protects our right to speak openly and freely on matters
of public concern. If WASHLITE doesn’t like what we said, it can
criticize us, but it can’t silence us with a lawsuit.”
The filing includes a 61-page appendix exposing the inaccuracies
in the WASHLITE complaint, with transcripts clearly showing FOX
News Channel hosts warning about the severity of the virus, while
also pointing out commentary downplaying the outbreak from multiple
media outlets, including CNN and the New York Times.
FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business
Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Radio, FOX News Headlines
24/7, FOX News podcasts and the direct-to-consumer subscription
streaming service FOX Nation. A top five-cable network, FNC has
been the most watched television news channel for more than 18
consecutive years, while FBN currently ranks as the number one
business channel on cable. Owned by FOX Corporation, FOX News Media
reaches 200 million people each month.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200414006031/en/
FOX News Media Contacts:
Irena Briganti 212-301-3608 Caley Cronin 212-301-3972
Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024