Liberty's Falwell threatens to sue New York Times for 'fake' COVID on campus report

[PeteS in CA]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/libertys-falwell-threatens-to-sue-nyt-for-fake-covid-on-campus-report

Liberty's Falwell threatens to sue New York Times for 'fake' COVID on campus report
by Paul Bedard | April 09, 2020 08:26 AM

Claiming “enough is enough,” Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. is taking legal action against several media outlets for “fake news” reports that he irresponsibly reopened the school amid the coronavirus outbreak, sickening students.

In aggressive actions, the school pushed for and won two arrest warrants against a New York Times freelance photographer and a ProPublica reporter and threatened to sue the New York Times if it doesn’t retract its March 29 story that the school brought students back after spring break, “then students started getting sick.”

Falwell ripped the reports as "fake news" and told Secrets, “The bottom line is that we have no students with COVID-19, no symptoms. And it’s so sad that they want to try to turn this into something political.”

There probably was a time when journalists understood that the First Amendment did not protect slander. Now, not so much.

[rangerrebew]

“Enough Is Enough:’ Liberty University Threatens to Sue New York Times
By Randy Hall | April 10, 2020 10:00 AM EDT

With the coronavirus outbreak still dominating news across the nation, one conservative school is fighting back against claims from the New York Times that the university irresponsibly brought students back to Lynchburg, Virginia, before they “started getting sick.”

“Enough is enough,” Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. stated when referring to the “fake news” reported on March 29 by the Times and the ProPublica website even though Falwell had stated on Thursday that “we have no students with COVID-19, no symptoms.”

According to an article posted on Thursday by Washington Examiner reporter Paul Bedard, Falwell is quoted as stating:

    We’re an easy target, we’re conservative. But it’s sad that they would use something as grave as the virus that’s killing people to push their political agenda, and we decided that enough is enough.

    And it’s so sad that they want to try to turn this into something political.

https://www.newsbusters.org/print/255451

[Chosen Daughter]

Have to disagree.  Irresponsible of Liberty University.  Not sure why they chose that path.

Virginia 5,077 cases 130 deaths

[PeteS in CA]

@Chosen Daughter, had you clicked the Washington Examiner link in the article @rangerrebew posted, you would have learned that the NYT lied. Liberty did not open fully, not even close. The WashEx article has a chart that provides comparison to other university, and then there's this a bit farther into the article:

But Falwell said that the school never reopened and only invited students with “no place else to go or no place safe to go” to return, requiring them to follow the state’s safe-distance rules, similar to those in place at Virginia Tech, UCLA, and other big campuses. About 1,000 of the school’s 16,000 students are on campus today and are taking online-only classes like others at home.

Those in self-quarantine did so because they returned from virus hot spots such as New York, as national health officials have demanded, and did not test positive. The one student who did was an online student and had not recently visited the campus.

The state health department conducted two surprise inspections and found everything in order and in compliance with Gov. Ralph Northam’s rules. “All operations appeared to be in compliance with the governor’s emergency order,” said Jim Bowles, a state health manager before the New York Times and ProPublica stories appeared.

Falwell has requested retractions, but they haven’t come.

[Chosen Daughter]

@Chosen Daughter, had you clicked the Washington Examiner link in the article @rangerrebew posted, you would have learned that the NYT lied. Liberty did not open fully, not even close. The WashEx article has a chart that provides comparison to other university, and then there's this a bit farther into the article:

You are right I didn't realize that they hadn't opened.  I was wrong I apologize.

[PeteS in CA]

Some update:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/liberty-university-wrongly-declared-a-virus-disaster-now-the-model-to-follow-falwell

Liberty University, wrongly declared a virus disaster, now the ‘model’ to follow: Jerry Falwell
by Paul Bedard | May 11, 2020 03:41 PM

Despite some 750 media reports that Liberty University was writing COVID-19 death sentences for some 1,100 students returning after spring break, the Virginia Christian college recorded no cases with students on campus and is now holding itself up as the “model” to follow in the fall.
...
He added: “Liberty University created the model that other universities should follow for pandemics by protecting its students, faculty, and staff from COVID cases in the local community. We are thankful to God that nobody who lived in a campus residence hall or who worked in a campus office tested positive for the virus.”
...
While some other schools locked the doors to dorms after spring break and as the pandemic spread, Falwell said he let 1,500 students return to dorms under strict rules of social distancing. Most returned because they had elderly parents at home they wanted to keep safe, or they didn’t have internet, or they were international students.
...
But the state health department conducted two surprise inspections and found everything in order and in compliance with Gov. Ralph Northam’s rules. “All operations appeared to be in compliance with the governor’s emergency order,” said Jim Bowles, a state health manager before critical stories in the New York Times and ProPublica appeared.

BTW, I suspect those "two surprise inspections" were political acts, not random check-ups.

[PeteS in CA]

An update: Liberty University files $10 million defamation suit against New York Times over COVID-19 coverage

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/liberty-university-files-10-million-defamation-suit-against-new-york-times

Liberty University on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, one of its reporters, and a local Virginia photographer over claims that the parties defamed the conservative Christian institution in a report earlier this year and also committed trespass while covering the story.

The civil suit, filed in a Circuit Court in Lynchburg, asks for $10.35 million in damages over the allegations, which stem from a late-March article published in The Times shortly after the university partially reopened during the coronavirus pandemic.

Liberty argues that the newspaper "intentionally misrepresented" the situation at school by suggested its reopening led to a wave of coronavirus infections on the campus.

[PeteS in CA]

A bit more:

New York Times spun ‘fictional tale’ about Liberty University spreading COVID, libel lawsuit says

https://www.thecollegefix.com/new-york-times-spun-fictional-tale-about-liberty-university-spreading-covid-libel-lawsuit-says/

A New York Times reporter “made up” the purported facts in an article about Liberty University endangering its community by reopening amid COVID-19 this spring, according to a $10 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times Company by the Christian school.

The lawsuit also alleges that reporter Elizabeth Williamson and a freelance photographer trespassed on campus to report the story, ignoring signage (below) that limited outside visitors to “Students, Employees, & Those Conducting University Business.” (A prosecutor dismissed the late March arrest warrant for Julia Rendleman, the photographer.)

The disputed Times article was originally headlined: “Liberty Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Too.” It was later modified to say “Coronavirus Fears.”

[verga]

Former employee of mine went there. She was allowed on Campus to pick up her personal items. Could only be there for a limited scheduled time. Heartbreaking for her.