Liberty University sues New York Times for defamation over coronavirus coverage

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Thu Jul 16, 2020, 09:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Lynchburg News & Advance

Liberty University sues New York Times for defamation over coronavirus coverage
Richard Chumney 11 hrs ago

Liberty University sued The New York Times for defamation on Wednesday, accusing the paper, and a reporter of crafting a "clickbait" story intended to mislead the public about a coronavirus outbreak at the school's Lynchburg campus.

In a 55-page complaint filed in Lynchburg Circuit Court, the university takes aim at a March 29 story in which The Times reported about a dozen students living on campus were sick with symptoms suggesting COVID-19.

The lawsuit argues that reporter Elizabeth Williamson deliberately misrepresented a Liberty- affiliated physician who the school claims told the paper that nearly 12 students only showed signs of "upper respiratory infections."

Lawyers for Liberty claim in the suit that an upper respiratory infection is not indicative of COVID-19 but milder illnesses like the common cold. ... "There was never an on- campus student diagnosed with COVID-19," the suit states. "The only actual 'viral' element of this narrative that existed was the intense 'viral' Internet attention it generated for the New York Times' website and for those paying to advertise on that website."

{snip}

Richard Chumney covers Liberty University for The News & Advance. Reach him at [phone].

Read more: https://newsadvance.com/news/local/liberty-university/liberty-university-sues-new-york-times-for-defamation-over-coronavirus-coverage/article_225ee27d-a7e1-528b-b1ea-bc86fb22904f.html

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Hat tip, {redacted}

{edited}

There's already a thread on this in the Virginia group. I didn't see it until after I had started this thread.

Liberty University sues The New York Times for defamation over coronavirus coverage

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10818379

[PJMcK]

1. Hey, Falwell!

Good luck with your lawsuit!

If you think your stupid "university" and its lawyers will intimidate the NY Times, you're dumber than I thought... which is really something, let me tell you! Incidentally, your suit probably doesn't have merit and could be tossed by the first judge you get in front of.

Don't forget the fun you'll have during discovery! Let's see the medical records if you think the Times is lying.

Your stupid denial of the Covid-19 virus is as dumb as your leader, the idiot Trump.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Culture War: Science-non-believers try to smoke NYT with science and logic

[Ford_Prefect]

3. IMO They file these to generate fundraising. It makes those donating feel like they're tackling the

Liberal Press and Liberal Elites. Not quite free advertising but it capitalizes the alleged victim status of Falwell's faithful and spreads that myth thickly every time the MSM repeats the story with each new step in the suit.

I'm no expert but I suspect they can write down or off the legal costs, and there is a pool of conservative lawyers waiting to file on this kind of case.

[gab13by13]

5. Liberty was one of the colleges

that got small business PPP money. No one in the MSM ever suggested that Liberty give back the money, just other universities. So Liberty probably has extra money to file this suit on the taxpayers dime.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. A lot of colleges and universities received those funds. Here's the list.

Wed Apr 22, 2020: Coronavirus: Harvard rejects Trump demand to pay back aid

From the comments:

There was a thread in GD on Monday that provided a link to the Department of Education list of the schools and the amount they received.

Mormon Church gets $54 million in stimulus money

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213317431

The money did not go to the "Mormon church." It went to BYU. It went to a lot of schools.

Here's the list:

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/allocationsforsection18004a1ofcaresact.pdf

[mdbl]

4. Liberty's "Click Suit" is a stupid ploy to look relevant

They aren't. Any self-respecting student would avoid that place.

[jimfields33]

7. The newspaper wouldn't intentionally give false info

Big deal that they said 12-students had coronavirus but ended up with upper respiratory problems instead. Just be grateful your school didn’t have a coronavirus outbreak.

[NYC Liberal]

8. Here's the article. No surprise, LU is misrepresenting what was actually published.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/us/politics/coronavirus-liberty-university-falwell.html

LYNCHBURG, Va. — As Liberty University’s spring break was drawing to a close this month, Jerry Falwell Jr., its president, spoke with the physician who runs Liberty’s student health service about the rampaging coronavirus.

“We’ve lost the ability to corral this thing,” Dr. Thomas W. Eppes Jr. said he told Mr. Falwell. But he did not urge him to close the school. “I just am not going to be so presumptuous as to say, ‘This is what you should do and this is what you shouldn’t do,’” Dr. Eppes said in an interview.

So Mr. Falwell — a staunch ally of President Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world — reopened the university last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggested Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. An additional eight were told to self-isolate.
As of 8 p.m. on March 29, of those three students tested, one was positive, one was negative and one student’s results are still pending, according to Dr. Eppes, who added that the student who tested positive for Covid-19 lives off campus.

[Kingofalldems]

11. Ahhh, no they did not say the students had Covid.

Read Post #8.

[marybourg]

9. Frivolous lawsuit!! Frivolous lawsuit!!

Oh right. IOKIYAR.

[Javaman]

10. sounds like nothing more than a slap lawsuit to make asshole failwell (sic) appear...

...like he's doing something, you know, instead of helping the students and the faculty.

[VA_Jill]

12. Falwell

(aka Foulball) is just emulating his buddy Cheetolini, who will sue anybody who he thinks makes him look stupid or silly. Little do they understand that such behavior just makes them look stupid and silly.

[Miigwech]

13. Call the "pool boy" as a witness for the defense

that will stop the law suit, toot sweet