Two prominent media consortiums dedicated to representing journalists are seeking to defend Fox News as the outlet faces a lawsuit over its coronavirus coverage.
The Internet & Television Association and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press are looking for permission from a Washington judge to file an amicus brief on behalf of the conservative-leaning network. Fox News is being sued by the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics, a nonprofit organization that is seeking a judicial gag order against the outlet’s opinion personalities who downplayed COVID-19.
The NCTA and RCFP filed the request to be recognized as amici curiae on Monday, soon after Fox News argued that a ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor could set a “dangerous” precedent. The network had previously submitted a motion to dismiss the case, but WASHLITE didn’t back down.
In the group’s latest filing, it questioned whether a cable news channel was entitled to First Amendment protections for content it broadcasts on a private cable television system owned by another entity and whether it violated a state consumer protection law that “claiming that COVID-19 is a hoax to subscribers of a private cable television system thereby deceiving Washington consumers.”
In the consortiums’ request, which calls for the suit to be dropped on “First Amendment grounds,” the media groups said WASHLITE’s arguments are “plainly wrong,” according to a copy obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“The Plaintiff in this case has asserted that news providers do not enjoy First Amendment protection when they distribute their programming over a cable television system. That radical proposition is plainly wrong,” they wrote. “Since the advent of cable television, the Supreme Court has explained time and again that cable programmers are protected by the First Amendment.”
King County Superior Court Judge Brian McDonald will hear additional arguments over the motion to dismiss later this week. He could make a ruling at that time.
The NCTA is made up of corporate owners of a number of major media conglomerates, including Warner Media’s CNN and HLN, Comcast’s NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo, Disney’s ABC News, ViacomCBS’s CBS News, A&E’s Vice TV, and AMC’s BBC America. The RCFP is made up of prominent reporters and executives from Reuters, Time magazine, ProPublica, ABC News, CNN, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, the New York Times, NPR, and PBS’s NewsHour.
