The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech April 13, 2023 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. The Courts New York Times: Landmark Trial Against Fox News Could Affect the Future of Libel Law By Michael M. Grynbaum .....Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News, which goes to trial in Delaware next week, is expected to stoke hot-button debates over journalistic ethics, the unchecked flow of misinformation, and the ability of Americans to sort out facts and falsehoods in a polarized age. For a particular subset of the legal and media communities, the trial is also shaping up as something else: the libel law equivalent of the Super Bowl. “I’ve been involved in hundreds of libel cases, and there has never been a case like this,” said Martin Garbus, a veteran First Amendment lawyer. “It’s going to be a dramatic moment in American history.” Washington Post: Special counsel focuses on Trump fundraising off false election claims By Josh Dawsey, Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman and Jacqueline Alemany .....Federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have in recent weeks sought a wide range of documents related to fundraising after the 2020 election, looking to determine if former president Donald Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money, eight people familiar with the new inquiries said. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has sent subpoenas in recent weeks to Trump advisers and former campaign aides, Republican operatives and other consultants involved in the 2020 presidential campaign, the people said. They have also heard testimony from some of these figures in front of a Washington grand jury, some of the people said. New York Times: Trump Sues Michael Cohen, the Key Witness Against Him By Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum and Jonah E. Bromwich .....Donald J. Trump on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, just weeks after being indicted in a case in which Mr. Cohen is expected to serve as a star witness. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, accuses Mr. Cohen of revealing Mr. Trump’s confidences and “spreading falsehoods” about him. It directly references Mr. Cohen’s role in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against Mr. Trump, which stems from a hush-money payment Mr. Cohen made on the former president’s behalf in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The case, while potentially far-fetched, suggests that Mr. Trump may be seeking to silence Mr. Cohen. Seth Dillon: The Babylon Bee is suing California's attorney general .....AB 587 is a new law in California that regulates social media companies. It requires Big Tech platforms to provide periodic reporting to the California Attorney General on several categories of speech, including misinformation, disinformation, extremism, radicalization, and hate speech. If the platforms don’t provide adequate reporting, the state will impose fines to compel compliance… They’re claiming it’s just about “transparency.” That’s not true. This is a censorship bill, not a transparency bill. Here’s Gavin Newsom himself explaining why he signed the bill into law: “California will not stand by as social media is weaponized to spread hate and disinformation that threaten our communities and foundational values as a country.” … In short, we argue that the law violates the First Amendment, is too vague to be constitutionally enforced, and violates the free speech guarantees in the California Constitution. You can read the full complaint here. Congress U.S. Senator Marco Rubio: Rubio Demands Answers From FEC On Potential ActBlue Fraudulent Donations .....ActBlue, a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party, has purportedly engaged in thousands of dollars in campaign donations through small donors, including senior citizens, via illegal contributions, without those donors’ consent or awareness. Further, unlike nearly every other individual political campaign and political action committee, ActBlue does not require a card verification value (CVV) number as a requirement for donating. Requiring a CVV number as a condition of making an online transaction is standard practice across the e-commerce industry to reduce fraud and prevent unlawful foreign transactions. ActBlue must be held accountable for its apparent lack of security protocols. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission’s Chairwoman and Vice Chairman, Dara Lindenbaum and Sean J. Cooksey, to demand answers on the platform’s schemes to garner illegal campaign donations... The full text of the letter is below. Free Expression Boston Globe: New faculty-led organization at Harvard will defend academic freedom By Steven Pinker and Bertha Madras .....[W]e have joined with 50 colleagues to create a new Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. It’s not about us. For many years we have each expressed strong and often unorthodox opinions with complete freedom and with the support, indeed warm encouragement, of our colleagues, deans, and presidents. Yet we know that not all is well for more vulnerable colleagues and students. Harvard ranks 170th out of 203 colleges in FIRE’s Free Speech Rankings, and we know of cases of disinvitation, sanctioning, harassment, public shaming, and threats of firing and boycotts for the expression of disfavored opinions. More than half of our students say they are uncomfortable expressing views on controversial issues in class. The Council is a faculty-led organization that is devoted to free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse. We are diverse in politics, demographics, disciplines, and opinions but united in our concern that academic freedom needs a defense team. Our touchstone is the “Free Speech Guidelines” adopted by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1990, which declares, “Free speech is uniquely important to the University because we are a community committed to reason and rational discourse. Free interchange of ideas is vital for our primary function of discovering and disseminating ideas through research, teaching, and learning.” Wall Street Journal: I Helped Make Corporations Woke, and I Regret It By Gregory T. Angelo .....If the gay-rights movement in the U.S. didn’t ignite the trend of corporations taking stands on cultural issues, it was definitely a prime accelerant. And I was there writing op-eds that declared corporate backing for gay causes was “a sign of success.” … The trend I helped begin, I now realize, was a disaster. In the past three years, major U.S. corporations have weighed in on everything from abortion and Black Lives Matter to election laws—even as the American public overwhelmingly wishes they wouldn’t. A 2021 report by the Brunswick Group found that 63% of corporate executives felt “unequivocally” that companies should speak out on social issues, while only 36% of Americans agree. A recent Journal poll found that 63% of respondents wished that companies wouldn’t take public stands on political and social issues... Institutions’ obsequiousness to left-wing causes has also had a chilling effect on public discourse. An August 2022 Populace study found an alarming prevalence of self-silencing as Americans conceal or misrepresent their private views to avoid conflict and assure colleagues they hold the approved opinion. Online Speech Platforms Politico: Twitter releases more political ad data after POLITICO report By Jessica Piper .....Twitter released more comprehensive political advertising data on Tuesday — which reveals political advertising is bringing in much more revenue than the social media platform previously disclosed. The new disclosures come after POLITICO reported that the company’s data releases were not complete despite promises of transparency. Twitter’s latest data shows revenue from political advertising since early March was more than 50 times higher than the company had previously reported. NPR: NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media' By David Folkenflik .....NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter's decision to first label the network "state-affiliated media," the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries. The decision by Twitter last week took the public radio network off guard. When queried by NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn, Twitter owner Elon Musk asked how NPR functioned. Musk allowed that he might have gotten it wrong. Twitter then revised its label on NPR's account to "government-funded media." The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The States CalMatters: California pay-to-play law could empower wealthy candidates and special interests By Garrett Gatewood .....When I became the first Black person elected to the Rancho Cordova City Council in 2018, I wasn’t the scion of a powerful political family or the beneficiary of wealthy special interests. I made history because of my track record fighting for my community, and was able to mobilize a lot of fellow citizens who shared my passion and were willing to invest in my campaign. Senate Bill 1439, authored by Sen. Steve Glazer, would make that impossible for future candidates facing the same challenges, and make it harder for political newcomers and members of minority groups to get elected. The law took effect this year. I joined a lawsuit to try and stop it. The policy is described as a tool to “ban pay-to-play,” which is a good soundbite, but such unethical activity has been and remains illegal. Rather than improving ethical campaign activity and good government policy, in practice, SB 1439 is a well-intentioned disaster that will disproportionately hurt minorities trying to win a seat at the table… Proponents of the bill claim it decreases the influence of money in politics by drastically reducing how much candidates can receive from donors who have an interest in the future of their communities. But in truth, it forces campaign money underground and empowers wealthy candidates and special interests. Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. Follow the Institute for Free Speech ‌ ‌ ‌ The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]