By Brian Carnell

Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Perusing the Project Censored 2005 web site, I found it a bit odd that an organization calling itself Project Censored was lamenting the fact that a lawsuit against a news outlet had failed to impose government censorship.

In its #11 most censored story, "The Media Can Legally Lie," Project Censored retells the story of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson. Akre and Wilson were hired by Fox affiliate WTVT and in 1997 prepared a story about bovine growth hormone. After it was finished, WTVT wanted changes made to the story. When Akre and Wilson refused to go along with the changes, they were fired.

Akre and Wilson sued Fox on the grounds that Fox was essentially asking them to broadcast things that, in Akre and Wilson's opinion, were simply not true. Akre won $425,000 while Wilson lost. Fox appealed the decision and on February 14, 2003, the Florida Second District Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the award to Akre.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why some on the left see this lawsuit as a good thing and the Florida court's reversal as a bad thing. For example, the Project Censored summary derisively notes,

During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have a right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves. Fox attorneys did not dispute Akre's claim that they pressured her to broadcast a false story, they simply maintained it was their right to do so.

Under Project Censored's view, the government should actively censor and/or punish media outlets that disseminate materials that are factually erroneous. Are they serious? So if CBS wants to broadcast Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11 conservative groups should be able to sue them for running material that distorts the truth?

The last thing in the world we need in the United States is the state acting as a fact checker. Leave it to a group calling itself "Project Censored" to advocate for such naked censorship.

The best solution to bad speech is more speech, but lately the Left's view of speech seems to run along the lines of "I may disagree with what you say . . . so shut up now."

Source:

The Media Can Legally Lie. Project Censored 2005.

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