First Amendment News

Daniel Zuidijk in Bloomberg News, July 8, 2024, reports that fact-checking organizations are being attacked. One organization said they were under fire by a “loose-knit coalition of conspiracy theorists, hard-right politicians and anti-establishment types” accusing them of committing treason. Another said that lawsuits, congressional investigations throttles free inquiry and legitimate academic research. For related FAC coverage, click here, here and here.

Brian Stelter in Vox, July 3, 2024, writes that as some Republicans think the media was not covering President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, it is not the case. But he thinks the media failed to cover the issue aggressively. Part of the problem was that the Biden administration went to extreme measures to discourage reporting on the topic. Still reporters failed to highlight evidence of Biden’s decline. David Bauder of The Associated Press in ABC

The city of Marion, Kansas that conducted a police raid of the Marion County Record settled one of five federal lawsuits when a former reporter accepted a $235,000 settlement. (The Associated Press, July 5, 2024, by John Hanna) During the raid, the police chief seized Deb Gruver’s cell phone and injured her finger while serving her a search warrant. (The Kansas City Star, July 6, 2024, by Ilana Arougheti)

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

The U.S Supreme Court refused to hear a case determining if a student can sue Snapchat for its role in sexual abuse by a teacher. The company’s lawyers told the court, ““Snapchat is no more responsible for the teacher’s criminal acts than the phone company that hosted her text messages to petitioner or the car that drove the teacher to school.” (USA TODAY, July 2, 2024 by Maureen Groppe) A 36-year-old teacher, now serving a