John Stossel Sues Facebook for Allegedly Defaming Him With Fact-Check

[mountaineer]

John Stossel Sues Facebook for Allegedly Defaming Him With Fact-Check
The veteran journalist is upset with what was affixed to his post about California forest fires and their cause.
September 23, 2021 7:28am
Hollywood Reporter
Eriq Gardner

This era of social media is bringing about a new genre of libel litigation — one where an individual says something, then is corrected, and then goes to court with bruised reputation. The latest complaint comes from John Stossel, the veteran TV journalist who on Wednesday sued Facebook in California federal court over what was affixed to his post about 2020 California forest fires and their cause.

“This case presents a simple question: do Facebook and its vendors defame a user who posts factually accurate content, when they publicly announce that the content failed a ‘fact-check’ and is ‘partly false,’ and by attributing to the user a false claim that he never made?” Stossel’s complaint asks. “The answer, of course, is yes.”

According to Stossel’s complaint (read here), he published on Facebook a video titled “Government Fueled Fires,” where he took on “sensational media reporting about a so-called ‘climate apocalypse,’ and explored a scientific hypothesis … that while climate change undoubtedly contributes to forest fires, it was not the primary cause of the 2020 California fires.”

Stossel targeted forest management.

After posting the video, he says Facebook placed a label near his video that stated, “Missing Context. Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.” Further information told readers: “Claim — ‘forest fires are caused by poor management. Not by climate change.’ Verdict: misleading.” ...

[mountaineer]

https://twitter.com/JohnStossel/status/1441387441479303180

[PeteS in CA]

Interesting that the hyper-partisan agendized MSM may bring about a long overdue reform of libel/slander law and how courts apply it.

[Bigun]

They (FB) did the same to me. Deleted my account in fact. I hope John Stossel cleans their clock in court!

[mountaineer]

Facebook:
John Stossel
2 hr  ·
I get that Facebook faces lots of lawsuits, including ridiculous claims from people with bad agendas.  It’s hard for Facebook to clean up its site.

But I know fact-checking. I've spent 50 years as a journalist sorting through the hype and fear to share what is true.

It's labor intensive to unemotionally look through data to investigate a scare-story, a process that my team and the people I trust have gotten quite good at.

By contrast, when Facebook empowers activist "Fact Checkers” who double down when they are wrong, that's just wrong.