Legal Info

Group Legal documents

Post Sees Eyes on Things

by

Article in Poynter by Angela Fu and Amaris Castillo

Headline:  “Opinion | A Washington Post investigation prompts changes at surveillance company Flock”

Subhead:  “The Post found dozens of cases of police misusing license plate readers. Flock is adding safeguards intended to prevent abuse.”

“Flock, the company that operates an extensive network of license plate readers, announced Thursday that it will implement new safety measures. . .”

“The Post noted that the announcement comes one week after the paper published an investigation finding dozens of examples of police officers using Flock’s cameras to stalk women without their knowledge or consent. In one case, a police chief searched his ex-girlfriend’s license plate more than 500 times and repeatedly sent her messages indicating he knew her location. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/flock-security-camera-changes-washington-post/

Pay Money Get Info?

by


Article in Al Jazeera by Staff and AP, 8/12/26

Headline:  “Media groups sue Trump over paid access to public social media posts”

Subhead:  “Lawsuit claims Trump profits unfairly by charging up to $100,000 monthly for exclusive access to presidential posts.”

“The publication The Intercept and the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation have filed a federal lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump to block his social media service from selling advance access to his posts.

“Court filings on Wednesday argue that the subscription-based service would restrict access to matters of public interest. . .”

“Critics have pointed out that Trump uses his Truth Social account to announce policy changes that could have effects on the economy. Trump’s comments, for instance, about the US-Israel war on Iran have sent ripples through global oil markets.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/12/media-groups-sue-trump-over-paid-access-to-public-social-media-posts

Kansas Newspaper Restitution

by

Article and photo in AP by John Hanna, 8/12/26

Headline: “A Kansas town will pay $850K to end a reporter’s lawsuit over a 2023 raid on her paper’s offices”

“A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper’s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom.

“Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit that the raid violated press freedoms and protections from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. She also said it almost immediately led to health problems, causing the return of potentially life-threatening seizures that had been controlled for years with medication. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c94e93cb264256678194d891a36108c9

Judge Stops Media Supression

by


Article in Free Press by Staff, 8/4/26

Headline:  “Civil-Liberties and Press-Freedom Groups Applaud First Circuit Ruling in Rodríguez-Cotto v. González-Colón, Affirming First Amendment Rights”

“On Tuesday, civil-liberties and press-freedom organizations praised the First Circuit’s ruling in Rodríguez-Cotto v. González-Colón. The First Circuit’s ruling upholds a district court’s permanent injunction, preventing use of a Puerto Rican law criminalizing information shared about states of emergency.

“Article 5.14(a) of Puerto Rico law, known as the ‘Fake News’ law, was enacted during the COVID-19 crisis and criminalized raising a ‘false alarm’ or spreading false information about public emergencies . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/civil-liberties-and-press-freedom-groups-applaud-first-circuit-ruling-puerto-rico-law

WSJ Bawdiness Lawsuit?

by

Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 8/5/26

Headline:   “Judge signals Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal may be dismissed again”

Subhead:  “Obama-appointed judge seemed unmoved by Trump attorneys’ arguments in case also naming Murdoch”

“A federal judge in Florida seemed skeptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s legal team on Wednesday over whether the court should allow a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal to move forward.

“Trump sued the Journal and the News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch over a July 2025 article about a “bawdy” letter reportedly from Trump that was included in a 2003 birthday book for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/aug/05/trump-defamation-lawsuit-murdoch-dismissal

Unhinged Journalist-Harassment?

by


Article in Ars Technica by Jon Brodkin, 7/28/26

Headline:  “eBay pays $46M to journalists it targeted in bizarre harassment campaign”

Subhead:  “eBay sent bloody pig mask and other macabre deliveries to journalists’ home.”

“eBay and three former executives agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement over a macabre campaign of cyberstalking and harassment that targeted two journalists in 2019.

“As we’ve previously written, the case involved deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a book about surviving the loss of a spouse, and a bloody pig mask to the home of a couple who run a news website. There were also harassing messages sent via email and Twitter, and an attempt to install a GPS tracking device on the victims’ car. Criminal charges resulted in guilty pleas and prison terms for former eBay employees. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/ebay-former-execs-pay-56m-to-settle-bloody-pig-mask-harassment-case/

Media, Drinking it all in?

by


Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo. 7/27/26

Headline:  “The Atlantic calls Patel lawsuit an ‘assault’ on Constitution in dismissal bid”

“The Atlantic is asking a judge to toss a lawsuit brought by FBI Director Kash Patel against the outlet over its reporting alleging excessive drinking and questioning his performance in the job. . .”

“The Atlantic, in a statement on Monday, called Patel’s suit ‘meritless’ and said it was asking the court to permit it to begin seeking factual discovery from the FBI and the Department of Justice — including documents and depositions of key individuals, which it called ‘appropriate given the allegations in this matter’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5993569-atlantic-patel-defamation-suit/

White House Needs Plumbers Again?

by


Article in The Washington Post by Michael Birnbaum, 7/24/26

Headline:  “To track down government leakers, Trump supports pursuing journalists”

Subhead:  “Hours before addressing the White House press corps, the president endorsed using subpoenas against reporters in national security leak investigations.”

“President Donald Trump took an aggressive stance toward Justice Department investigations of journalists Friday, saying that the way to pursue ‘treasonous’ leaks was to seek information from the journalists who received the leaked material.

“The comments — which came hours ahead of a rerun of the White House correspondents’ dinner, where the president was to address the reporters who cover him at a gala that honors the freedom of the press — amounted to a presidential endorsement of his administration’s legal battles against journalists. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/07/24/identify-government-leakers-trump-supports-pursuing-journalists/

30 Years for Box of Magazines

by


Article in FAIR by Dorothee Benz, 7/22/25

Headline:  “Prairieland Was a Test, and Corporate Media Failed”

” ‘Thirty-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech,’ an Intercept headline (6/26/26) shouted days after a federal court sentenced eight anti-ICE protesters to a combined 450 years in prison. . .”

“One of the defendants, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was not even at the protest. He was, as the Intercept’s headline correctly reported, sentenced to 30 years because he moved a box of zines. . .”

“Yet the extremely harsh sentences for Sanchez Estrada and the others did not set off any alarm bells among corporate media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/prairieland-was-a-test-and-corporate-media-failed/

Media Monopoly Deal Delayed Again

by


Article in The Wrap by Benjamin Lindsay, 7/23/26

Headline:  “Paramount-WBD Deal Delayed Again as Judge Extends Restraining Order by 2 Weeks”

Subhead:  “With Thursday’s ruling, the earliest David Ellison’s deal for Warner Bros. Discovery can close is Aug. 17″

“The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger was delayed further on Thursday after a federal judge extended the temporary restraining order pausing the deal by an additional two weeks, pushing the earliest date David Ellison could close the $110 billion deal to Aug. 17. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/deals-ma/paramount-warner-bros-restraining-order-extended-2-weeks/