Defamation Bill in Florida Could “Destroy Conservative Media”

New Defamation Bill in Florida Could Change The Media

(AmericanProsperity.com) – Florida Republicans are pleased with the legislation’s choice to hold liberal media accountable, but some people think that this could cause problems.

Alex Andrade, a Republican State Representative, is sponsoring a bill that would make it easier for Floridians to sue journalists and news organizations for defamation. This kind of lawsuit was originally difficult to prove in court but this bill would make it much easier.

Many political activists have spoken out about the potential effects of this bill. Trey Radel, who is a political consultant, said that since the “premise of the bill is to make it easier to sue the media” it can go both ways.

“While certain Republicans may think that they’re going to be suing and taking on The New York Times and The Washington Post, here’s the breaking news: liberal trial lawyers are going to have a field day with center-right media in the state of Florida,” Radel said. “Signing this into law will destroy conservative media in this state,” he continued.

Radel said that he understands why Republicans are demanding accountability, but that this bill could affect many members of the conservative media who live and work in Florida. There have been a lot of issues he’s found with this; the bill says that if a source reports something that’s not factual and is easily disproved, then the news source or media source “acted with actual malice.”

There are many aspects of this that are controversial and not fully supported by some people such as the fact that the hearing would be a “veracity hearing” where the lawsuit would be pushed to a judge for a ruling, not a jury, which of course goes against the right to a jury and it wouldn’t allow sufficient time to investigate.

Radel said, “I sympathize with it. They’re angry with the media. But this will open the door for liberals and liberal trial lawyers to engage in lawfare just like they are with Donald Trump. They don’t even care about winning. They care about burying the voices.”