Defamation reforms, alarming to news business, on verge of failure in FL Legislature

The Florida Pheonix

By Michael Moline

February 27, 2024

The House and Senate sponsors of legislation to tighten Florida’s defamation law against media organizations conceded Tuesday that the measure is falling short as the regular session winds to a close.

“Dead,” Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur said when asked about the bill’s prospects.

Brodeur, representing Seminole and part of Orange counties, added a caveat: “As far as I know. But that’s going to be up to the presiding officer” — meaning Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.

The House sponsor, Alex Andrade, a Republican whose district include parts of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, also acknowledged the writing on the wall.

“President Passidomo doesn’t want to hear it. It depends on how much anybody else cares about it. Like, I don’t negotiate with President Passidomo,” Andrade told the Phoenix.

Additionally, “the speaker [of the House, Paul Renner] doesn’t want it. The governor doesn’t have the bandwidth to negotiate for it,” he added. “There’s nothing to trade, nothing to negotiate on. President Passidomo is going to kill it.”

[Read More]

Separating Fact from Fiction on Florida’s Defamation Bills

The National Review

By Jim Schwartzel

February 27, 2024

Florida legislators have identified a real problem, but they are responding to it with bills that would harm free speech.

A pair of proposed laws in Florida would threaten free speech by opening up conservative media outlets to liability and a torrent of lawsuits. But the proposals come from an unlikely source: supposedly tort-reforming, small-government Republicans in the Florida legislature.

Ironically, the laws would threaten the very center-right outlets — including my family-owned radio station — these Republicans rely on to communicate their message and circumvent the chokehold that liberal media would otherwise have on the state. While the bills are intended to go after outlets such as the New York Times, conservative outlets would be hardest hit.

The sponsors of these bills, H.B. 757 and S.B. 1780, have downplayed their impact. But an examination of the legislators’ claims against the facts, and the text of the legislation, reveals a stark reality: These proposed laws, under the guise of fairness and accountability, threaten to erode fundamental conservative values and the very essence of free speech.

Here are some claims that state representative Alex Andrade and other supporters of the bills have made, followed by the facts.

[Read More]

Indictment of journalist raises serious First Amendment concerns

Freedom of the Press Foundation

By the Freedom of the Press Foundation Staff

February 22, 2024

Federal prosecutors in Florida have obtained a disturbing indictment against well-known journalist Tim Burke. The indictment could have significant implications for press freedom, not only by putting digital journalists at risk of prosecution but by allowing the government to permanently seize a journalist’s computers.

While the indictment is short on facts, it reportedly arises, in part, from Burke’s dissemination of outtakes from a 2022 Tucker Carlson interview with Ye, formerly Kanye West, where Ye made antisemitic remarks that Fox News chose not to air. Ye’s antisemitism has been global news ever since. The indictment, which also alludes to sports-related content Burke allegedly intercepted, charges Burke with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and with intentionally disclosing illegally intercepted communications.

[Read More]

Fla. bill that would make it easier to sue media advances

Tampa Bay Times

By Lawrence Mower

February 22, 2024

TALLAHASSEE — A group of Christian broadcasters called it “deeply flawed.”

Conservative Florida radio host and former U.S. Rep. Trey Radel said it would “destroy conservative media.”

The New York Post’s editorial board called it “utterly mad” and “insanely overreaching.”

Florida Republican-sponsored legislation that was originally intended to make it easier to sue mainstream news outlets for defamation has sparked an intense backlash from conservatives, who fear it will be turned against them.

HB 757 and SB 1780 would change the state’s defamation laws and challenge federal court rulings on free speech.

Publishers who cite an anonymous source who provides wrong information could be exposed to greater liability in a defamation lawsuit. The legislation would also create a new, speedier venue for allowing defamation cases to proceed or be tossed out.

On Wednesday, a House committee approved HB 757 on a 14-7 vote, sending it to the floor for a full vote. Lawmakers asked no questions and said nothing during debate.

Minutes later, Stephen Miller, who was a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say that conservative influencers, podcasters and alternative media “are going to get WRECKED” if the bill passes.

“If you want to go after corporate media then pass a law narrowly tailored at them,” Miller wrote.

[Read More]