The county board meeting in Wausau, Wis., on Aug. 12, 2021, got contentious fast. Nobody disputes that.

But what happened about 12 minutes in, as members of the north-central Wisconsin community squabbled over a resolution intended to promote diversity and inclusion, has become the subject of a bitter legal fight that threatens to bankrupt one of the few remaining sources of local news in the area. First Amendment experts say the case highlights a troubling trend of wealthy and powerful people using defamation law as retribution.

Acting on a tip from a reader, The Wausau Pilot & Review reported that during the meeting, the owner of a shredding and recycling company, Cory Tomczyk, called a 13-year-old boy a “fag.” Mr. Tomczyk, who is now a Republican state senator, denied using the slur and demanded a retraction. When The Pilot & Review stood by its article, Mr. Tomczyk sued.

Three additional people who attended the meeting later gave sworn statements that they had heard Mr. Tomczyk use the word. And during a deposition, he admitted having said it on other occasions.

In late April 2023, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Mr. Tomczyk had not met the legal standard for proving that the report defamed him.

But that was not the end of the matter for the small and financially pinched Pilot & Review, a nonprofit that has already racked up close to $150,000 in legal bills from the case. Mr. Tomczyk has filed an appeal. And the publication’s founder and editor, Shereen Siewert, said she has no idea how she can continue paying both her lawyers and her staff of four.

“Every time I open the mail,” said Ms. Siewert, describing how she dreads finding a new bill, “I want to throw up.”

“Those dollars could be going to pay reporters for boots on the ground coverage, not paying legal fees for a lawsuit that appears designed to crush us,” she added.

As politicians have grown more comfortable condemning media outlets they view as hostile — banning reporters from covering events, attacking them on social media, accusing them of being an “enemy of the people” — some public officials have started using the legal system as a way of hitting back. Former President Donald J. Trump has filed numerous unsuccessful defamation lawsuits against news organizations. Late last month a federal judge threw out his latest — a $475 million suit against CNN. Other prominent Republicans have followed his lead, including Devin Nunes, the former Republican congressman Mr. Trump hired to run his social media network, Truth Social. Mr. Nunes has sued several outlets, including The Washington Post and CNN, for publishing stories that were unfavorable to him. In Mississippi, former Gov. Phil Bryant is suing a news organization over its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage that exposed how he misspent state welfare money to build a volleyball stadium.

The Wisconsin case, First Amendment experts warned, shows how a single defamation suit can become a cudgel against the media in a way the law never intended. For small local news organizations, many of which are barely getting by financially, the suits threaten to put them out of business.

That is the case with The Pilot & Review, even though there is scant evidence that it reported anything false — let alone that it did so with “actual malice,” the long-established burden of proof that public officials like Mr. Tomczyk must meet in a defamation case.

  • radix@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is why we need a strong federal anti-SLAPP law (and state-level laws, too, of course).

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This guy needs to own his bigotry. If he’s going to use words like that in a public meeting, why not just admit it? What is even the point of denying it? This is some “what are you going to believe, me or your own eyes” bullshit with the addition of attacking and destroying the media reporting on it.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Cory Tomczyk, the bigot who used the homophobic slur, is now a state rep having won the election in his district 4 months after the story broke that he’s a bigot. His constituents know exactly who he is and selected him to represent them.

      Attacking the media is just part of the grift.

  • reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fascists using the legal system for their own gain is nothing new, we are just seeing it play out in the daylight because they are emboldened.

  • justastranger@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The US desperately needs federal anti-SLAPP laws that force the issuers of frivolous lawsuits to pay for the defendant’s legal costs

  • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
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    1 year ago

    In case like this, the loser should be forced to pay legal fees of both parties. It’s fucking ridiculous that someone can be forced to pay that kind of money because of such a spurious abuse of the judicial system.

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    1 year ago

    Leopard Ate My Face.

    This small newspaper is a little different since it clearly isnt some huge conglomerate, but I honestly have little sympathy for most of these media outlets that are now getting sued left and right by these right wing pieces of trash.

    For decades now our mass media has been giving these right wing lunatics one free pass after another, all while trying to hold Democrats to impossibly high standards. So now that they’ve emboldened these Republicans, they are surprised when they turn on the media and bully them. That’s what you get for giving special treatment on these fascists.

    • Whiskey Pickle@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Excuse me if I find your criticism disingenuous and as duplicitous as the criticism you accuse the media of having when you admit this small media outlet isn’t responsible for doing the thing you go on to be critical of yet continue to use it as a platform for your criticism regardless. 

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you actually read the article you’d have see that other media outlets were mentioned (specifically CNN). And this has been an on-going problem with our shit mass media for a long ass time. They give these fascists a free pass and then 2 seconds later those very same fascists turn around and attack the media. I literally wrote in my reply that this small newspaper isn’t the same as the large corporate ones, but in the end what one media does reflects onto all media outlets.

        • Whiskey Pickle@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Using a story about a small, local media outlet as a platform to rant about the problems with mass media just shows your tenuous grasp on the situation and your underlying agenda here. You’re in no position to start making accusations as to who here read or understood what.

          • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Thanks for proving that you didn’t actually read the article or else you’d have known that they mention other lawsuits, including CNN and The Washington Post.

            • Whiskey Pickle@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              red herring, moving the goalposts, and a whataboutism with a side of ad hominem.

              that’s four logical fallacies in one sentence, all while saying nothing of substance. impressive haul.

                • Whiskey Pickle@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  why would I admit to your fallacious argument after proving them wrong repeatedly?

                  wow, that’s just proof of your magical, wishful thinking not at all based in reality.

            • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, they mention them in reference to the right using lawsuits as a weapon against journalists, but the article isn’t even remotely about them.

              • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Literally the largest paragraph in the entire article is about the bigger picture of Republicans suing the media and in that same paragraph the hometown paper and Tomczyk aren’t even mentioned once.

                But yeah, let’s pretend that this article isn’t trying to spotlight the larger picture at all. Sure. Uh huh.

    • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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      Your diatribe has nothing to do with the article and everything to do with your (justified) hatred of big media.

      Do you hate every mom and pop store because walmart exists?

      The paper is not in the wrong here.

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Literally the very first sentence of the 2nd paragraph points out that this small newspaper isn’t the same as large corporate media but if you actually read the article, they mention other lawsuits by Republicans suing other media outlets (including CNN).

    • TigrisMorte@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      And you feel that a small nonprofit local news source, which is going broke for honestly calling out one of said scum bag right wingers, going bankrupt will somehow teach these corrupt right wingers a lesson???

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        Did you literally not read the first sentence of my second paragraph? Or even comprehend the rest of my post??

        If you can’t even do that much, then maybe, just maybe, don’t reply with something that isn’t even related to what I was saying. Oooof

          • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Just admit you didn’t read the article and see that it was more than just the one small time company.

            • TigrisMorte@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              just admit your rant was irrelevant to the case of a small nonprofit news org being slaughtered by wealthy fascists. Oh, and the suggestion that the article was about anything other than a small nonprofit news org being sued for reporting the truth, as proven in Court, and the wealthy using their connections to silence dissent is laughable.

              • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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                It is literally the largest paragraph in the entire article, but if you didn’t read it, then clearly you wouldn’t know that.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s lots of reasons to blame the media, but this isn’t one of them.

      They’re being sued for reporting on the truth here.

      • Tomczyk called a 13 yo a fag.

      • Newspaper reported on it.

      • Tomczyk said that was slander and sued.

      • Judge said this isn’t slander. You literally said that.