Look at the sneering language with which he describes the notion of "fact-checking" with "impunity" as a "masquerade."
Not far from something you'd see on the North Korean twitter account. /2
Stossel did a video about forest fires. Facebook says it lacked context, and directed viewers to a website that disagreed with Stossel's assessment.
That's literally the defamation here. /3
Then, Stossel says that, because his reporting suggested both land management and climate change were to blame--an assessment the page you're directed to shares--it was defamatory to say his video lacked context. /4
The problem with Stossel's lawsuit is that Facebook is allowed to have opinions, like all of us. And factually proving that a claim is not "misleading" seems like a difficult task.
Stossel basically admits the term is meaningless in his own lawsuit.
/5
Under the First Amendment, I can say that John Stossel has a done a lot of great reporting in the course of his life.
Or I can say his reporting often lacks context. And both opinions are protected. /6
On another occasion, Facebook labeled one of Stossel's videos as "false" without specifying what was false about it, apparently.
Saying you disagree with his conclusion isn't 1a protected? /7
So Stossel is suing Facebook and an organization who Facebook seeks out for its opinions for defaming him by claiming his videos lack context and... I guess implying he undersold climate change?
He's asking for punitive damages.
/8
The thing is, I generally like John Stossel. I think he's got an interesting perspective, he's fun to listen to, and he often interviews interesting people.
And he needs to make a living. And Facebook is making that harder.
But hoo boy is a lawsuit ever counterproductive.
/9
It's my sincere hope that the case will be dismissed in response to an anti-SLAPP, and Stossel will get the chance to think about whether this attempt to silence criticism of his work is really in accordance with his free speech principles. Pobody's nerfect. /f
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When I left my job as a Paulding Public Defender, I wrote a post on the defense attorney list-serv looking for a replacement, saying that Dick Donovan, the previous DA, was incompetent and you'd win a bunch of cases.
Turns out he had honorary access to the list-serv. /1
My now former boss was calling and yelling at me to apologize, trying to smooth all this over. It struck me as a bit of an overreaction, but I had to talk to my boss at my new job about it when I joined.
/2
Dick Donovan has since been placed on leave for lying about sexually harassing an employee, requiring a $300,000 payment from the county.
The CRT debate reminds me so much of growing up in Cobb County, Georgia, where our biology textbooks had stickers on them saying that evolution was "just a theory."
Of course, we simply skipped the chapter on evolution altogether.
But I absolutely loved this book, and Stephen Jay Gould, and a teacher let me give a presentation on all the ways we know the age of the earth when I was around 15.
It felt so rebellious sneaking it past the censors.
Millions of people marched for Black Lives matter. More than 90% of those protests were completely peaceful, even if you include violence initiated by police in the face of criticism.
But you told a bunch of people to come to DC and prevent the count of the votes for Biden.
And when the President told those people to march, they did. Some of them were armed. They broke a bunch of windows and assaulted some police officers and threatened to kill a bunch of folks.
Most of them are getting probation or short jail sentences.
Here's Thomas Massie talking about Trump's speech the day after: