1/ I'm one of several journalists who've been sued regarding tweets around the Covington Catholic/DC mall incident. But this is about more than me, or this lawsuit. It's about a new ideological war on journalism: motherjones.com/media/2021/11/…
2/ I/we don't even know who we're being sued *by*. We have a sense, though, based on who the plaintiff's lawyer is: motherjones.com/media/2021/11/… 
3/ This kind of lawsuit is becoming increasingly common, a way to quash reporting, any cripple institutions the plaintiffs and this new class of lawyers see as ideologically opposed to their worldview:
4/ "winning" a case isn't even the goal, in many instances. It's to waste a news organization's time and money with drawn out litigation. When we were sued by Romney's billionaire finance chair, it cost us dearly:
5/ So we won that suit against Frank Vandersloot, but it dragged on for 3.5 years, cost us $400,000 that our libel insurance didn't cover, and our insurance got jacked up as a result. motherjones.com/media/2015/10/…
6/ News organizations are being gutted by hedge funds. They've seen their ad revenue taken by Facebook and Google. And, though you don't hear about it too often, they're facing a ton of lawsuits from rich people driven by ideology or spite or simply to prevent future scrutiny.
7/ So, if you care about @MotherJones, maybe you'll kick in a bit to help us fight back. But regardless, start paying attention to this trend, because a neutered and gutted press allows corruption and authoritarianism to flourish: secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/7L…
8/ PS: Work to pass anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) statutes, that protect the press and others from frivolous lawsuits that are just designed to burn time and treasure. Now plaintiffs venue shop to avoid states with them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic…
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