Free Speech: Going, Going ...

[Guest guest]

" Zepp " <zepp

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 21:23:53 -0700

[Zepps_News] #Molly: Free Speech: Going, Going ...

 

 

 

 

<http://www.alternet.org/story/24293/>

 

Free Speech: Going, Going ...

 

By Molly Ivins, AlterNet. Posted August 19, 2005.

 

Corporations' efforts to curb free speech through lawsuits are

unfortunately succeeding.

 

Eternal vigilance is the price of ... um, well, guess we can't say that

anymore. We might get sued.

 

Mostly when we think of threats to free speech, it's government actions

or laws we have in mind -- the usual bizarre stuff like veggie libel

laws or attempts to keep government actions or meetings secret from the

public.

 

Sometimes you get a political case, like then-Gov. George W. Bush's

effort to stop a Bush-parody site on the Internet. The parody, run by a

29-year-old computer programmer in Boston named Zack Exley, annoyed Bush

so much that he called Exley " a garbageman " and said, " There ought to be

limits to freedom. " (That's not a parody -- he actually said that.)

 

Bush's lawyers warned Exley that he faced a lawsuit. Then they filed a

complaint with the Federal Elections Commission demanding that Exley be

forced to register his parody site with the FEC and have it regulated as

a political committee.

 

This fits in with the four instances in which faculty members at the

Bush School of Government and Public Service in our fair state were

reprimanded at the behest of Bush associates for saying

less-than-glowing things about our then-governor.

 

But this is petty stuff compared to corporate efforts to curb free speech.

 

SLAPP suits (for " strategic lawsuits against public participation " ) are

a serious menace to free speech. The latest example is a real prize: The

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, has already spent $10

million defending itself against a lawsuit filed by Isuzu Motors Ltd.

because, eight years earlier, Consumer Reports rated the Isuzu Trooper

" not acceptable " for safety reasons. And the case has not yet reached

trial.

 

And that is the real menace of SLAPP suits. It's not that corporations

win them, but that they cost critics so much money that the critics are

silenced -- and so is everyone else who even thinks about raising some

question about a corporate product or practice.

 

Isuzu claims that CU's reports are " not scientific or credible, " but the

company's internal memos state that the " lawsuit is a PR tool " and " when

attacked, CU will probably shut up. " According to a study by two

University of Denver law professors, " Americans by the thousands are

being sued, simply for exercising the right to speak out on public

issues, such as health and safety. "

 

New York Supreme Court Judge J. Nicholas Cobella told PR Watch in

Madison, Wis.: " The longer the litigation can be stretched out ... the

closer the SLAPP filer moves to success. Those who lack the financial

resources and emotional stamina to play out the 'game' face the

difficult choice of defaulting despite meritorious defenses or being

brought to their knees to settle. ... Short of a gun to the head, a

greater threat to First Amendment _expression can scarcely be imagined. "

 

PR Watch also quoted George Pring and Penelope Canan, authors of the

1996 book " SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out. "

 

" Initially, we saw such suits as attacks on traditional 'free speech'

and regarded them as just 'intimidation lawsuits,' " the two authors say.

" As we studied them further, an even more significant linkage emerged:

The defendants had been speaking out in government hearings, to

government officials or about government actions. ... This was not just

free speech under attack. It was that other and older and even more

central part of our Constitution: the right to petition government for

redress of grievances, the 'Petition Clause' of the First Amendment. "

 

Some examples of SLAPP suits from PR Watch:

 

* In Las Vegas, a local doctor was sued for his allegation that a

city hospital violated the state's cost-containment law.

* In Baltimore, members of a community group faced a $252 million

lawsuit after circulating a letter questioning the property-buying

practices of a local housing developer.

* In West Virginia, an environmental activist was sued for $200,000

for criticizing a coal-mining company for activities that were poisoning

a local river.

* In Pennsylvania, a farmer was sued after testifying to his

township supervisors that a low-flying helicopter owned by a local

landfill operator caused a stampede that killed several of his cows.

* In Washington state, a homeowner found that she couldn't get a

mortgage because her real-estate company had failed to pay taxes owed on

her house. She uncovered hundreds of similar cases, and the company was

forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. In

retaliation, it sued the woman for slander and dragged her through six

years of legal harassment before a jury found her innocent.

* In Missouri, a high-school English teacher was sued for $1

million after complaining to a weekly newspaper that an incinerator

burning hospital waste was a health hazard.

 

Unlike the average citizen, Consumers Union has the resources to defend

itself against the Isuzu suit. It's a nonprofit organization, and

Consumer Reports accepts no advertising, lest there be any appearance of

bias, and never grants permission for any commercial use of its name or

test results.

 

It accepts no contributions from corporations or law firms or even

individuals if the check bears a business imprint. The 60-year-old

magazine is supported by the generations of smart consumers who always

consult Consumer Reports before making any major purchases.

 

As we have seen with tort deform, it is not difficult to close off

access to the courts for certain kinds of lawsuits. I can't think of a

more meritorious and constitutional cause.

 

Molly Ivins writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre happenings.

--

 

 

 

 

The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making ten-thousand revolutions a

minute and man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. Religion is

the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him

the ride. --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

 

 

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

For news feed, http:////zepps_news

For essays (please contribute!) http://zepps_essays