757<\/a>, introduced by state Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, is a provision that would ease the criteria for defamation suits. It proposes a legal presumption that any news or media organization citing an anonymous source in a story acted with \u201cactual malice.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cActual malice\u201d has been the defamation standard set by the Supreme Court since 1965, established in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. This standard dictates that public officials, later expanded to include public figures, cannot claim damages for allegedly defamatory falsehoods without demonstrating that the statement was made with actual malice, meaning with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for its truthfulness.<\/p>\n
Andrade defended this contentious aspect of the legislation before the Florida House Civil Justice Subcommittee in January, sparking concern among conservatives, free speech advocates, and journalists alike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a single journalist who would say, \u2018Yes, I\u2019ve got a valid argument, valid circumstance, where I relied on a single anonymous source before publishing something that was ultimately false and harmed someone\u2019s reputation,’\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has advocated for looser defamation laws as part of his second-term agenda, suggesting in February 2023 that he aimed to facilitate suing media companies, conservative-leaning broadcasters in the state and their supporters across the U.S. worry about the potential impact of the proposed legislation on the media landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cSigning this into law will destroy conservative media in this state,\u201d warned Trey Radel, a conservative radio host in Florida, in an interview with Fox News.<\/p>\n
Radel\u2019s concerns were echoed by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), a Washington, D.C.-based association advocating for Christian voices in electronic and digital media. NRB\u2019s general counsel penned a letter to Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, urging him to withdraw the bill from consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the bill\u2019s authors may have well-meaning intentions, the practical impact of the legislation will result in a cottage industry of well-funded trial lawyers weaponizing the libel law\u2019s provisions to silence voices their funders disagree with,\u201d wrote Michael Farris, counsel for NRB.<\/p>\n
Even allies of former President Donald Trump, such as longtime adviser Stephen Miller, have campaigned against the proposed bill, highlighting concerns about its potential consequences. Miller warned of leftist plaintiff lawyers \u201cbankrupting every prominent conservative based in Florida\u201d if the state lowers the standard for defamation.<\/p>\n
If Florida passes the proposed law to lower the standard for defamation, expect leftist plaintiffs lawyers to spend the next generation bankrupting every prominent conservative based in Florida,\u201d Miller wrote on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conservative groups and activists nationwide are expressing opposition to a bill pending before the Florida House, which aims to facilitate lawsuits against journalists and media outlets for defamation. At the heart of Florida House Bill 757, introduced by state Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, is a provision that would ease the criteria for defamation suits. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}