Florida GOP Kills Defamation Bill Feared By Right Wing

February 26, 2024 Politics, Republicans

Florida Politics reports:

The Senate will not consider a controversial defamation bill. For the second year in a row, the bill effectively hit a wall in the upper chamber despite signs of life in the House. With fewer than two weeks left in the Legislative Session, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo’s Office signaled there is no appetite for the bill. “No. No plans to take up HB 757,” Passidomo spokesperson Katherine Betta told Florida Politics.

That’s the House version carried by Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican. The bill angered a number of conservative outlets, many of them family-owned stations and media groups. More recently, the bill drew the attention of nationally prominent conservatives, including Stephen Miller, an advisor to Trump, who said the law will ultimately stifle conservative speech.

Here’s what Voldemort said about the bill:

“If you just have a law change in Florida that says it’s way easier to punish people for defamation, end of law, what the hell do you think is gonna happen?  Every left-wing trial lawyer in the country is going to move to Florida and sue the hell out of every conservative influencer, podcaster, and everybody else. Write the laws so it protects your friends and harms the bad guys, otherwise, you’re handing them a sword to run right through you.”

The bill would have created the “presumption of malice” regarding news articles, social media posts, and podcasts later proven to the false, significantly lowering the bar in defamation cases, which have long required evidence of “intentional malice.” That “presumption” angle drew howls of protest from the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, Newsmax, and other right wing outlets well known for their lies.



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