Conspiracy Kook Rachel Maddow Hit with $10 Million Defamation Suit Over Wild Russian Collusion Claims
Shane Trejo
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MSNBC fake news proponent Rachel Maddow has been slapped with a defamation lawsuit of $10 million by the One America News Network (OAN) after she said the network was “paid Russian propaganda” without providing any real evidence for her wild claim.
OAN filed the lawsuit in San Diego, CA, and it will be considered by the courts in the weeks to come. The upstart news agency loved by President Donald Trump feels that Maddow’s comment came as a response to OAN President Charles Herring’s accusation of censorship against MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast.
Herring claimed that Comcast refused to carry OAN because it “counters the liberal politics of Comcast’s own news channel, MSNBC.” Maddow made the comment about OAN being Russian propaganda in July after an article published by the Daily Beast alleged that an employee of OAN also worked for Sputnik News, which is funded by Russia.
“In this case, the most obsequiously pro-Trump right-wing news outlet in America really literally is paid Russian propaganda,” Maddow said during an edition of her titular show.
“Their on-air U.S. politics reporter is paid by the Russian government to produce propaganda for that government,” Maddow added.
OAN contends in the lawsuit that Kristian Rouz, whose work was highlighted by Maddow’s conspiracy theory, is only a freelancer with Sputnik News, and his work there is completely unrelated to anything he does while working with OAN.
“I have never written propaganda, disinformation, or unverified information,” Rouz said in a statement about the many articles he has written for Sputnik News.
Skip Miller, an attorney representing OAN, believes that there is a legitimate case here against Maddow, Comcast, MSNBC and NBCUniversal Media for defamation, as the fake news has stoked fear with evidence-free conjecture about Russia endlessly for years.
“One America is wholly owned, operated and financed by the Herring family in San Diego. They are as American as apple pie. They are not paid by Russia and have nothing to do with the Russian government. This is a false and malicious libel, and they’re going to answer for it in a court of law,” Miller said in a statement.
MSNBC and their parent company refuse to take any responsibility for their malicious behavior. They are denying that Maddow committed any wrongdoing and refuse to back down from their xenophobic and irresponsible reporting about Russia.
Amy Wolf, a lawyer for the NBCUniversal News Group, said OAN “publishes content collected or created by a journalist who is also paid by the Russian government for writing over a thousand articles” in an Aug. 6 letter addressed to OAN’s lawyer.
“Ms. Maddow’s recounting of this arrangement is substantially true and therefore not actionable,” Wolf concluded.
The courts will ultimately decide if that is or is not the case. If a jury rebukes Maddow for her deceitful reporting and she is forced to pay dearly in the court of law, that may finally silence the Russophobic noise machine that has caused irreparable damage to the American democracy since Trump won the presidency.
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