US – #WeeklyAddress July 24-30: Sarah Palin plans to subpoena 23 New York Times reporters

1. Sarah Palin plans to subpoena 23 New York Times reporters in defamation case

As part of her defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin plans to subpoena 23 Times reporters, editors and employees, according to court documents released Wednesday, July 26. Lawyers for The Times, motioning for the lawsuit to be dismissed, argued that most of the 23 reporters had nothing to do with the editorial over which Palin is suing, and that the subpoenas are part of her efforts to get “documents that might reveal, among other things, their ‘negative feelings’ toward her.” The Times also told the judge that Palin plans to request “every internal communication it had about her since 2011.” Palin’s lawyers also represented Hulk Hogan during his lawsuit against Gawker over a sex tape the website published of him, using internal communications between Gawker’s staff to push their case.

2. Capitol Police order reporters to delete photos and videos of protesters in Senate hall

Capitol Police arrested protesters outside of the Senate Chamber on Tuesday, July 25, and reportedly told journalists to delete photographs and videos documenting the arrests. Andrew Desiderio, a reporter for The Daily Beast, tweeted “Capitol Police made me delete the video I recorded,” and Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery, who was also in the hall that day, tweeted that an officer pushed her when she tried to get a look at the protesters.

According to Congress rules, photography and video recording is prohibited outside the Senate and House chambers, which is where the protests took place. Organizations such as RSF, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, PEN, and the ACLU have criticized the Capitol Police for compelling reporters to delete their photographs and videos as a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.

3. Trump accuses The Washington Post of being Amazon’s lobbying tool

President Donald Trump continued his tirade against The Washington Post early in the week on Twitter. On Monday, July 24, Trump accused the Post of fabricating facts in a story about ending a US program to aid certain Syrian rebel groups to fight Assad. The Post confirmed that the White House had not disputed any facts when the story ran a week prior. Later that day, Trump tweeted: “Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?” Though Amazon pays taxes, Trump had made similar accusations during his presidential campaign. The Washington Post is not owned by Amazon, but by the company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos.

4. Scaramucci tells reporter he wants to “kill all the leakers”

During an explosive phone call with New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza on Wednesday night, July 26, newly-appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said he wants to “f---ing kill all the leakers” so he can get the president’s agenda back on track. Scaramucci called Lizza that night to find out who leaked to him the names of the president’s dinner guests that evening, which Lizza had tweeted. Lizza did not reveal his source to Scaramucci.

The United States ranks 43rd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index after falling 2 places in the last year.

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