Rose Law Group Reporter’s Gripe of the Week
Yes, the Second Amendment in the hands of the sick has led to death, but that’s not a reason to repeal it.
The First Amendment in the hands of unethical publishers has led to the bastardization of journalism. That is a reason to call attention to a court ruling this week, in which your Gripe Editor believes the judge screwed up.
The California Federal Appeals Court on Tuesday ruled against a group of journalists at the Santa Barbara News-Press who had been fired for demanding truthful reporting integrity and wanting to unionize.Rather than uphold their rights both to unionize and to speak out against unethical editorial practices, the court instead said their firings were protected by newspaper publisher Wendy McCaw’s First Amendment Rights to print whatever she wanted.
During what has been a six-year employment law fight, newsroom staff quit or were fired after they spoke out against McCaw’s interference in their reporting and altering of facts in the coverage.
The journalists who remained joined the Teamsters, and McCaw subsequently fired eight journalists.
The appeals court upheld the firings as legal, and to force McCaw to rehire the fired journalists would be a violation of her Freedom of Speech rights.
“The First Amendment affords a publisher – not a reporter – absolute authority to shape a newspaper’s content,” Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a three-judge panel.
Here’s what Rose Law Group employment law attorney David Weissman, who was consulted for this column, had to say:
“If the company wants to report the news poorly or inaccurately, it should have the right to do so, and if its employees disagree with that approach, the company should have the right to fire them. Ultimately, the company will be punished for its poor decisions when its readers stop subscribing and it goes out of business.”
On the other hand, the attorney said firing employees because they affiliated with a union is actionable.
It is doubtful a biased and untruthful newspaper would fold because, unfortunately, readers would not know en masse its articles were bogus, let alone sue someone who owns ink by the barrel.
The judge has ruled the First Amendment includes the Freedom to Lie.
There has to be a time when common sense and the search for truth trump literal law. There are times when judges should compromise for the betterment of all.
As alternet.org put it: “If you were wondering whether rich people can buy full control of the ‘news’ in this country, the answer is, apparently, yes, and they can abuse workers’ rights in the process, too.”
