Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The New York Times reports:
Less than a month after suing Twitter for allowing its users to insult him, Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, said he was suing the McClatchy Company, a newspaper chain, over what he called “character assassination.”
The defamation lawsuit seeks $150 million and the deletion of an article in The Fresno Bee, a McClatchy newspaper, about Alpha Omega Winery, a company that Mr. Nunes partially owns. The article, published last May, described a lawsuit by a server who was aboard a San Francisco Bay cruise in 2015 attended by some of the winery’s top investors, which she said included drugs and prostitution.
The lawsuit filed by Mr. Nunes, a loyal ally of President Trump and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says he was not involved in the incident on the yacht and that he considers the article part of a politically motivated scheme to “destroy his reputation” and derail the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Sacramento Bee reports:
“With the limited opportunity we have had to review this claim, it is wholly without merit and we stand behind the strong reporting of The Fresno Bee,” a McClatchy spokeswoman said Monday night.
Nunes never requested a correction to the story. Much of Nunes’ 43-page lawsuit focuses on Twitter, the number of Twitter followers The Bee and Mays have and the fact that the “Yacht/Cocaine/Prostitues article was republished online and retweeted and posted on the Internet hundreds of thousands of times.”
“It traveled through social media like wildfire,” Nunes’ suit alleges, adding that “McClatchy’s words obviously had their desired effect – they linked Nunes to ‘underage prostitutes’ and ‘cocaine.’”
The Washington Examiner reports:
Appearing on Fox News after he filed the lawsuit Monday, Nunes said some of McClatchy’s reporters there were “the biggest perpetuators of the Russia hoax.”
“I’m serious. I’m coming to clean up all of the mess,” Nunes told host Sean Hannity. “So, if you’re out there and you lied and you defamed, we’re going to come after you.”
“Remember, a few weeks ago I filed against Twitter, that they were censoring conservatives,” the California congressman said Monday.
Nunes sues McClatchy for $150 million, alleging conspiracy to thwart Clinton, Russia probes https://t.co/otVJiOZZwd
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 9, 2019
Fox News has now deleted the copy of the complaint it posted, but this makes it sound like Rep. Nunes is suing a newspaper for $150m for writng true things but not in the order he would have liked, which was a conspiracy to derail his Russia investigation. https://t.co/FQQ0uTtNH1
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 9, 2019
In paragraph 6, Rep. Nunes alleges that his most recent re-election campaign wasn’t much fun. pic.twitter.com/ZUuWKuUucm
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 9, 2019
Rep. Nunes’ lawsuit alleges both that everybody already knew about the winery/cocaine/yacht/sex lawsuit, and that it is defamatory to suggest that he knew about it (by reporting that it wasn’t clear whether he knew). pic.twitter.com/BwaAvZggsC
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 9, 2019
I’m not surprised that there are people who think this is how the news media works; I am surprised to see a member of Congress go there in a lawsuit. (Though, then again, Rep. Nunes has already sued Twitter because a fake cow expressed mean opinions about him here.) pic.twitter.com/HFb2VJGC4N
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 9, 2019
Rep. Nunes also says McClatchy defamed him by reporting on an ethics complaint that was filed against him over the whole winery/yacht/prostitute/lawsuit thing. This part of the complaint is in bold, which means it is very, very serious. pic.twitter.com/5tWBtON4jM
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 9, 2019
One of the most surprising things about this lawsuit is that it was filed by a lawyer.
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 9, 2019