[HN Gopher] Pulitzer winning reporter faces jail for protecting ...
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Pulitzer winning reporter faces jail for protecting funding scandal
sources
Author : anigbrowl
Score : 79 points
Date : 2024-07-09 19:48 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nbcnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nbcnews.com)
| nickpeterson wrote:
| I'm sure this will restore his good name.
| smnrchrds wrote:
| These sorts of actions are usually of the "pour encourager les
| autres" variety.
| yellow_postit wrote:
| As his attorney said in the article "I just want the money."
| lxe wrote:
| It boggles me how there's no federal shield law to protect
| journalists from this.
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| This is on purpose.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| To be clear, this suit stems from another journalist (their CEO)
| stating things that weren't factual and was admitted as such:
|
| >Bryant did not sue after the articles were published in April
| 2022, and, in fact, the statute of limitations on defamation
| claims in Mississippi lapses after one year. But in February
| 2023, the CEO of Mississippi Today, Mary Margaret White,
| mischaracterized the reporting at a journalism conference in
| Miami.
|
| >"We're the newsroom that broke the story about $77 million in
| welfare funds, intended for the poorest people in the poorest
| state in the nation, being embezzled by a former governor and his
| bureaucratic cronies and used on pet projects like a state-of-
| the-art volleyball stadium at Brett Favre's alma mater," she said
| in videotaped remarks.
|
| >Embezzlement is a crime, and Bryant has never been charged, let
| alone convicted. There has been no indication he is a target of
| an ongoing federal investigation into the welfare fraud scandal.
|
| >In May 2023 -- a few days after the Pulitzer announcement --
| Quin sent Mississippi Today a notice of his intention to sue,
| citing the "embezzlement" remark. A week later, White issued a
| public apology, saying: "I misspoke at a recent media conference
| regarding the accusations against former Governor Phil Bryant in
| the $77 million welfare scandal. He has not been charged with any
| crime. My remark was inappropriate, and I sincerely apologize."
|
| For what it's worth, the former governor and his lawyer weren't
| satisfied with the apology and went forward with their lawsuit.
|
| I see two sides to this. It's critical that journalistic sources
| be held in confidence, but it's also critical to guarantee
| presumption of innocence until proven guilty and that journalists
| don't abuse their position to spread slander.
|
| That their entire investigation is now getting pulled in
| demonstrates just how stupid that CEO journalist was.
| ciabattabread wrote:
| If only she had said "being embezzled by a former governor['s]
| bureaucratic cronies".
| newprint wrote:
| former Governor Phil Bryant signed docs to allocate those
| funds. Plain and simple. He claims ignorance. It wasn't a
| pocket change, he should have been aware of what he was signing
| and where those funds came from. It is plain corruption and he
| is trying to get back at the journalists for exposing his
| corruption.
| redleggedfrog wrote:
| "Embezzlement is a crime, and Bryant has never been charged,
| let alone convicted. There has been no indication he is a
| target of an ongoing federal investigation into the welfare
| fraud scandal."
|
| I see no need for an apology and no merit for any lawsuit. Each
| part of those sentences is a factual statement. No where is it
| said, "Then Governor Phil Bryant is an embezzler." Bryant is
| making his own assumptions there, because he knows what he did.
|
| Wikipedia says, "The previous director of Mississippi's welfare
| agency, John Davis, who admitted to being involved and is
| currently working with authorities, was appointed by Phil
| Bryant. An attorney said, "John Davis knows of the extent of
| personal involvement of former Governor Bryant and Governor
| (Tate) Reeves and the massive waste of taxpayer money," but
| said that _Davis was under direction from the FBI to remain
| silent._ " (my emphasis)
|
| Sounds like someone at the FBI is working the case. Could be
| some FPMITA prison in Bryant's future.
| simonw wrote:
| It's important to note that the Pulitzer winning journalist
| isn't being accused of defamation here.
|
| She's facing jail time because the defamation case resulted in
| a court order to see information about her confidential sources
| (presumably via the discovery process). Reputable journalists
| don't hand over details about their confidential sources.
| aniviacat wrote:
| > Bryant did not sue after the articles were published in April
| 2022, and, in fact, the statute of limitations on defamation
| claims in Mississippi lapses after one year. But in February
| 2023, the CEO of Mississippi Today, Mary Margaret White,
| mischaracterized the reporting at a journalism conference in
| Miami.
|
| > In May 2023 -- a few days after the Pulitzer announcement --
| Quin sent Mississippi Today a notice of his intention to sue,
| citing the "embezzlement" remark.
|
| Why are the journalists in trouble if the lawsuit is about
| something the CEO said?
| Dalewyn wrote:
| The lawsuit is demanding to see the sources to prove that the
| former governor did not embezzle as was claimed by the CEO.
|
| The sources are held by the journalists.
|
| The journalists will face prison if they do not comply with the
| court order to turn over their sources.
| echohack5 wrote:
| And the journalists know if they reveal their sources that
| the people behind them will subsequently have their lives
| destroyed by the powerful.
| rdtsc wrote:
| But why sue the journalists and not the CEO only? She made
| the remarks. Why are other journalists who didn't make the
| remarks afraid of going to jail: "If one of us goes to jail,
| we will be the first person to go to jail in the Mississippi
| welfare scandal"?
|
| I guess the key here is the he wants to show that it was done
| with malice. It seems, unlike in other
| countries/jurisdictions, a defamation lawsuit requires
| proving malice. So one way to prove it would be to show that
| whatever sources the journalists had definitely did not
| indicate the governor was embezzling, but the CEO claimed he
| did. Therefore, she did it with malice? It's quite
| complicated to follow.
|
| So what gives, does the governor feel pretty confident he is
| innocent and sources won't show anything? What if he sources
| reveal he did embezzle? Or, does he know the source materials
| already, and what's in them, if someone leaked them to him or
| his lawyers, and now he wants to open them up in a legal way
| to be used as evidence. Can't say, "we found outside the
| court house, they feel of the truck".
| Dalewyn wrote:
| >But why sue the journalists
|
| They are not being sued as far as I can tell. The lawsuit
| is against the CEO and her company (Mississippi Today), but
| the court has ordered the sources to be turned over and
| _that_ is held by the journalists who face prison if they
| do not comply with the court.
|
| >So one way to prove it would be to show that whatever
| sources the journalists had definitely did not indicate the
| governor was embezzling, but the CEO claimed he did.
| Therefore, she did it with malice? It's quite complicated
| to follow.
|
| Knowingly lying can arguably be an act of malice,
| especially if your job description is about reporting the
| facts. Thus the demand to see the sources, which given the
| argument isn't entirely unreasonable but obviously
| conflicts with keeping sources in confidence.
|
| We'll see what the higher courts say, I guess.
| newprint wrote:
| I saw the interview with the former official who filed the
| lawsuit. He claims that he is not doing this in spite, but only
| because his name been dragged into it. He signed the funding !!!
| OutOfHere wrote:
| What we need is a p2p blockchain which can accumulate leaked
| documents. To add docs to it would require the whistleblowers to
| first earning enough credits by adding nodes to the network.
| Journalists can similarly add nodes to the network to earn
| credits which they can choose to transfer to potential
| whistleblowers, anonymously using Monero-like or comparable tech.
| Surely there would exist a fiat valuation of the credits too, but
| that's secondary. When forced to reveal sources, journalists then
| point to the chain.
|
| As a specialty, if any c.p. or other garbage is added to the
| chain, it would be possible to rescind the affected files by a
| three-quarters hypermajority. A proof of non-rescinded
| submissions could be required for such special voting rights.
| vlovich123 wrote:
| So former Governor Phil Bryant is claiming that the claim by the
| CEO of the paper that he embezzled (the CEO has since apologized
| for the error) was due to malice. What I fail to understand
| though is how the identity of the sources demonstrates said
| malice. Moreover, there's a lot more here:
|
| > [Nancy] New said that at a 2019 Christmas party, Bryant talked
| about Jake Vanlandingham, founder of the Florida-based biotech
| company Prevacus. "Governor Bryant got excited and told me that
| Jake had offered him 'half the company,' which I understood to
| mean a substantial amount of stock, but the Governor said he was
| going to have to wait until he was out of office to accept," New
| wrote.
|
| If you might recall, Brett Favre was paid $1M in speaking fees
| but never actually did any speeches and he advocated for
| government funds to be used to build a volleyball stadium at USM.
|
| I really think the simplest defense here will be to just show
| that Bryant was complicit in the embezzlement just because it
| seems more likely than not:
|
| > Bryant was governor from 2013 to 2020 and chose John Davis as
| director of the state Department of Human Services. Davis pleaded
| guilty in September 2022 to state and federal charges in a
| conspiracy to misspend tens of millions of dollars that were
| intended to help needy families in one of the poorest states in
| the U.S.
|
| > Favre had publicly said he supported the Prevacus effort to
| develop a concussion drug, and the state's civil lawsuit says
| Favre invested more than $250,000 in the Florida-based company.
|
| > "After the meeting, I asked John why he had committed so much
| funding so quickly," New said in the court filing. "John said he
| had spoken with Governor Bryant and the Governor wanted Prevacus
| funded. John said the Governor was 'all about this happening.'"
|
| Now to be clear I'm not saying the governor is guilty of
| embezzlement. I'm just saying that it seems like everyone that he
| surrounded himself with seems to have been caught doing shady
| shit stealing from welfare funds & denying 90% of applicants to
| these programs. Since the former Governor makes Christianity a
| core part of his identity, might I remind him 1st Corinthians
| 15:33 "Bad company ruins good morals". And if I were the
| prosecutors, I'd make real sure there's no case at all against
| the governor cause it seems like there's some smoke there that
| can be fanned into a fire.
|
| [1]
| https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2024/02/29/mississi...
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