So we know that POTUS45 Donald Trump is no longer on Twitter so the lawsuit that he filed last week against the social media service for supposed censorship certainly won’t change that I’m sure. Regardless, the former president can enjoy a First Amendment victory in court. A New York judge has just dismissed a privacy lawsuit against him over the retweeting of a meme. In what appears to be a first, the judge finds the meme to be “newsworthy.”
The meme in question comes from Logan Cook, who goes by the internet handle “CarpeDonktum.” Make sure you all point and laugh at this idiot who made this hate video towards Trump. Here’s what this idiot did. Cook the idiot in question found a video of a white toddler running after a black toddler and stuck a chyron reading “breaking news” over it. The captions read, “Terrified Todler [sic] Runs From Racist Baby” and “Racist Baby Probably A Trump Voter.” First why did Twitter, and Facebook not ban that original hate video? But they banned Trump when he played the video in it’s entire form, and showed what it was nothing but a hit job by some asshole.
The video Trump had remade then fades to black, and reads, “What actually happened.” The toddlers run at each other and embrace. A new caption: “AMERICA IS NOT THE PROBLEM…FAKE NEWS IS. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING. ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FAKE NEWS DUMPSTER FIRES.”
After Trump tweeted the video, which led Twitter to add a “manipulated video” message, the parents of the toddlers filed suit against both Trump and Cook and alleged that the exploitation of the childrens’ image had violated New York privacy and publicity rights law (N.Y. Civil Rights Law §§50 and 51) and was both an intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
New York Supreme Court Judge David Benjamin Cohen decides dismissal is warranted. “Initially, as defendants assert, the video was newsworthy,” he writes. “To promote freedom of expression, the meaning of ‘newsworthiness’ has been broadly construed and includes ‘not only descriptions of actual events … but also articles concerning political happenings, social trends, or any subject of public interest.’ … It is common knowledge that one of the principal tactics of Trump’s presidential campaigns, as well as his presidency, was to incessantly attack the mainstream media as purveyors of ‘fake news,’ including his claim that the media exaggerates the extent of racial division in this country. Thus, the video’s references to ‘fake news’ and its depiction of race relations, however distorted, are clearly newsworthy.” IN Other words Trump was right about the fake media, and how they exploited his 4 years as President with fake racist crap like this video just to hurt the President in the eyes of black voters.
Cohen adds that any reasonable viewer would realize the content wasn’t real. “Since the video is therefore a satire, albeit one which some may consider to be rather distasteful, this Court is constrained to find that it is not actionable,” continues the decision. Trump not only sought dismissal but looked to take advantage of New York’s recently amended anti-SLAPP statute to recover his legal fees.
The judge won’t go that far. Cohen does agree this suit qualifies as a SLAPP meaning a frivolous piece of litigation aimed at interfering with the former president’s First Amendment rights. And while Cohen ultimately disagrees with the plaintiffs’ argument that Trump used the video as a means of advertising his presidential campaign, the judge nevertheless dodges an attorney fee award by saying plaintiffs had a “good faith basis” for their arguments and that the parents “should not be penalized by the draconian language set forth in” the anti-SLAPP statute.
Will they end up paying the Trump lawyer fees? Probably not as they can’t give Trump that big of a win now could they? I mean I’m shocked in NY with how Liberal they’ve become that Trump is getting this victory! Maybe the tide in NY is turning? Who knows but we all know it wasn’t Trump that locked down the state, and it wasn’t Trump that put sick covid patients with elderly folks causing countless people to die who didn’t need to. That was the DemocRATS in charge, and especially one named Andrew “Brother of Fredo” Cuomo.
