Reality_Check© wrote:
> **       FLORIDA COURT RULING SAYS FOX "NEWS" CAN LEGALLY LIE  **
>
> On February 14, a Florida Appeals Court ruled that there is absolutely
> nothing illegal in Fox News Organisation lying, concealing or
> distorting information. The court reversed the US$425,000 jury
> verdict of 2000 that was in favour of journalist Jane Akre, who
> charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to
> air what she knew and documented to be false information.
>
> On August 18, 2000, a six person jury was unanimous in its conclusion
> that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station's
> pressure to broadcast what
> jurors decided was "a false, distorted or slanted" story about the
> widespread use of Monsanto's rBGH, a genetically engineered growth
> hormone given to dairy
> cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre's claim, that Fox
> pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster
> from having to defend the
> truth in court as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers.
>
> Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in
> front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the
> grounds there there is no hard, fast and written rule against
> deliberate distortion of the news. The attorneys for Fox, owned by
> media baron Rupert Murdoch, argued that the First Amendment gives
> broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on
> the public airwaves.
> The Court of Appeals, in its six?page written decision, held that the
> Federal Communications Commission's position against news distortion
> is only a "policy", not a promulgated law, rule or regulation.
>
> Fox aired a report after the ruling was handed down, saying that it
> was "totally vindicated" by the verdict.