Anna Wolfe is facing jail in Mississippi for her role in reporting on welfare fraud as the former governor Phil Bryant is suing her and her editor for defamation. The reporting won her a Pulitzer Prize, but now a court order requires her to turn over files including the names of her sources. (NBC News, July 2, 2024, by Ken Dilanian and Laura Strickler)
Her editor Adam Ganucheau writes that Bryant is not contesting the accuracy of the reporting but the lawsuit poses a real threat to the MIssissippi Today’s financial viability and the free press. “We believe this legal tactic is intended to chill our reporting of the current state and federal investigations into the welfare misspending,” he wrote. (Awful Announcing, July 5, 2024, by Brendon Kleen)