Don Blankenship attempted last week to run several ads on Comcast Cable in Washington DC and West Virginia. These spots highlight the need for New York Times v. Sullivan to be overturned. However, Comcast refused to run these ads.
Blankenship said: “The press is controlled by an oligopoly of multinational media conglomerates. New York Times v. Sullivan allows these corporate giants to collude with government officials to defame election candidates and sabotage election outcomes with impunity. Weaponized defamation is extremely injurious to free speech and American democracy.”
Blankenship continued: “New York Times v. Sullivan is a protector of corrupt election activity far worse than Watergate. My case gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to reject a legal standard that empowers the press to sabotage American elections at the behest of government officials. Fair elections must be safeguarded if American democracy is to survive.”
When asked whether he would be a candidate for any public office in 2024, Blankenship responded: “We should know by then whether it remains legal to refer to my opponents as “convicted felon” or even as “pedophiles.” If defamation is not prohibited by the rules of engagement, then perhaps it would be fun to play Senator McConnell’s game.”
Blankenship was tacitly reminding us that McConnell posted a tweet that thanked Blankenship for “playing” after the 2018 West Virginia Republican primary election. Polls indicated that Blankenship had surged ahead to a sizeable lead in the polls just days before the primary. McConnell then appealed to Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch for help to defeat Blankenship. Thereafter, multiple Fox News commentators falsely called Blankenship a “convicted felon” on both the eve and the day of the election.
