Lies, Damn Lies. And Milk.
by Paul Schmelzer
A Florida judge decided recently that it's technically legal for the
media to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television
broadcast.
The decison reversed
a $425,000 jury verdict in favor of TV journalists Jane Akre and
Steve Wilson, who sued WTVT-TV, a Fox affiliate in Tampa, for firing
them because they refused to air false reports about the presence of
synthetic bovine growth hormone (or BGH) in the area milk supply. The
husband-and-wife reporting team asserts that Monsanto, maker of BGH,
pressured WTVT to edit the story to be less damning to the company
(some of the changes would've undermined the credibility of scientists
and studies that link BGH in milk to cancer). Akre and Wilson refused,
despite repeated attempts by the station to have the story altered and
an offer to terminate them with full pay if they never spoke of their
BGH findings. Finally, says Akre, when they threatened to report the
station to the FCC for falsifying news, they were canned. The lawsuit
was settled in August 2000 with the finding that Fox "acted
intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs'
news reporting on BGH" and that Akre's threat to blow
the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the
termination. The station appealed and prevailed, the judge citing that
there is no FCC rule or regulation that specifically makes it illegal
to mislead, distort, or falsify the news. The FCC's "news
distortion policy," says Judge Casaneuva, isn't enough.
To download court documents see New
World Communications of Tampa v. Akre or visit Akre's website.
