Suing media outlets might be easier soon in Florida. Conservatives are worried
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 among conservatives who fear it will be turned against them.
House Bill 757 and Senate Bill 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 rejected.
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 the platform X 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.
House bill sponsor Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, said that media outlets are being scared by their lawyers and that responsible outlets have nothing to fear. News outlets that rely on information from anonymous sources without verifying the information they receive are engaging in “journalistic malpractice,” he said.
“That’s reckless disregard for whether or not a statement was true,” he said.
When asked by a reporter about conservatives’ objections, Andrade said, “They’re just banging the table.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, for whom the news media is a frequent foil, has for years wanted to see the nation’s libel laws changed. But he has not publicly weighed in on this year’s legislation.
Ahead of the 2022 legislative session, his office shared with a lawmaker a draft of a bill that would have required courts hearing defamation lawsuits to presume that statements by anonymous sources are false. The bill wasn’t filed.
Last year, DeSantis held a roundtable with lawyers and others to discuss making it easier for prominent people to sue and win defamation cases against news outlets.
Andrade and Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, followed up by introducing bills last year that would have removed many of the legal protections against defamation lawsuits established in the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan.
The court held in that case that prominent people — politicians, government officials and public figures — seeking to sue news organizations had to prove that an outlet knew that the published statements were false before publishing them or that the outlet acted with reckless disregard for the truth, known as “actual malice.”
House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said last year that the goal was to set up a court case to overturn Times v. Sullivan. The bill didn’t pass, in part because of concerns among conservative media outlets.
This year’s bill is far less transformative. False statements from anonymous sources would be automatically presumed to be “actual malice” unless proved otherwise.
But the backlash has been arguably more intense. Opposition has emerged from people across the political spectrum, including the Better Business Bureau and Americans for Prosperity, founded by the conservative Koch brothers.
“In our opinion, this runs afoul of 35 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” said Chris Stranburg, the legislative affairs director for Americans for Prosperity.
Free-speech advocates have also denounced it. A lawyer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which has spoken out against attacks on free speech by conservatives and liberals, said the bill poses “grave dangers” to Floridians.
Attorney Carol LoCicero, who represents news outlets from across the political spectrum, including the Tampa Bay Times, noted a wave of high-profile defamation cases filed against conservatives and media outlets.
Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million last year to settle a libel suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims that the company’s machines manipulated the results of the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers he falsely accused of fraud after the 2020 election. Last month, Trump was ordered to pay more than $83 million to the columnist E. Jean Carroll in a defamation case.