Associated Press Under Fire for Salacious Article on Ohio Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno

So where does the 1st Amendment protection end? Does it at all?

In a gist the AP, long held as a straight hard news reporting organization a "just the facts ma'am" no slant or agenda news bureau but over the years certainly taken a turn to the left becoming part of the MSM, on the eve of an election post a hit piece against the Rep. candidate. The story that 16 years ago he solicited sex with men on a website.

As Prof. Turely goes on to report

"The Associated Press (AP) is reportedly looking at a possible lawsuit after a bombshell article on GOP Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno was found to contain serious errors and contradictions. The article by Brian Slodysko suggested that Moreno had posted on the website Adult Friend Finder (AFF) to find male lovers. The story was eagerly picked up by newspapers like The Washington Post. Moreno is a Trump-backed anti-establishment candidate who is on the ballot this Tuesday in the Ohio primary.

After being pressed by conservative sites like Breitbart News, AP admitted that a claim of having “geolocation data” implicating Moreno is untrue and Moreno’s counsel has shown that an intern admitted that the posting was a prank. Moreover, the AP knew and reported on the admission from the intern but still ran the story and claim of geolocational data support. The article is being denounced as a political “hit piece” and AP has reportedly brought in a major defense attorney to handle the legal repercussions...."
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/03/...ticle-on-ohio-senate-candidate-bernie-moreno/

The article goes in to note that the owner of the website looked at the account and told the AP that is was a fake account having only had the ONE visit when the account was created with no logo picture no activity and consistent with a fake account. He told them the "geolocation data" 16 years ago was merely a lookup table based only on the zip code the person entered. With that and the former interns full confession and apology for his at the time "juvenile prank" AP refuses any retraction and stands by their reporting.

The article closes noting with all the contravailing evidence......

"The issue is whether, given Moreno’s status as a public figure, the AP meets the “actual malice” standard for defamation as either knowingly publishing a false claim or doing so with reckless disregard of the truth. If Moreno sues and gains access to discovery against AP, this could prove a costly and embarrassing matter for the company."

Should this proceed? Is AP protected under the 1st? Should Moreno prevail? What does this say about the current state of the reporting by the MSM? At what point does any news organization or media outlet left-middle-right cross the line and subject themsleves to civil action?

 

I thought the being gay was a big feather in your cap among Progressive Democrats. I guess it's bad if you are Trump Republican. Who knew?

 

It used to be that AP, Reuters, and a very small handful of others were more or less unbiased but, unfortunately, that ship has sailed.