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Kyle Rittenhouse announced a brand new initiative Monday aimed toward difficult main media retailers in court.
The Media Accountability Project will elevate cash for authorized challenges towards retailers Rittenhouse believes defamed him throughout his trial and maintain them “accountable” extra broadly.
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“The Media Accountability Project is the official fundraising vehicle for holding the worst offenders in our activist media accountable in court. In the long term, I want to provide a platform for independent journalists who are actually committed to the truth, but for right now, accountability is priority No. 1,” Rittenhouse instructed the Washington Examiner.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 when he fatally shot two males and injured a 3rd in the course of the 2020 riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, claimed he was appearing in self-defense and was in the town with a rifle to assist shield companies there in the course of the unrest that adopted the police capturing of Jacob Blake.
A Wisconsin jury in November acquitted Rittenhouse of all prices, starting from intentional murder to recklessly endangering security.
Following his trial final 12 months, throughout and after which he was topic to nationwide consideration, Rittenhouse instructed Fox News there can be “some media accountability coming soon.” Although he didn’t specify the names of the retailers he would challenge in court, Rittenhouse argued that main media lied about him by describing him as racist and a white supremacist throughout his trial.
“My trial exposed a deep corruption in our media that cannot go unanswered. Their blatant lies, defamation, and propaganda were malicious attempts to tear our nation apart and destroy my life — and I am committed to holding them accountable,” he stated.
He introduced the undertaking on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight. The initiative has a web site the place supporters of Rittenhouse can donate to a fund for his authorized challenges towards the media. In a promotional video for the Media Accountability Project, Rittenhouse learn a quote from Malcolm X describing the media’s energy.
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power,” he stated.
Beyond the media, Rittenhouse has put sure public figures on discover for what may very well be defamation litigation. Last 12 months he stated President Joe Biden linking him to white supremacists was “actual malice,” and added that it is “defaming [his] character for [Biden] to say something like that.”
Rittenhouse instructed Carlson on Monday that the record of people that could also be topic to litigation may embody Whoopi Goldberg of ABC’s The View who stated in her view {the teenager} dedicated homicide even after his acquittal.
“We are looking at quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes, Whoopi Goldberg is on the list. She called me a murderer after I was acquitted by a jury of my peers. She went on to still say that, and there’s others,” he stated earlier than noting Cenk Uygur from the Young Turks can be on his radar.
Following the trial, Rittenhouse was requested by The Blaze if he was in pursuing authorized challenges towards media retailers in court. Rittenhouse stated his principal focus was his former legal professionals Lin Wood and John Pierce, whom he accused of mendacity and placing his household “in jeopardy.” He beforehand instructed Tucker Carlson that Wood and Pierce raised cash off his title and may have bailed him out of jail sooner.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Defamation challenges towards media retailers are usually troublesome for public figures to win due to the “actual malice” or reckless disregard for accuracy normal established in the 1964 NYT v. Sullivan Supreme Court resolution. Last week, a jury discovered the New York Times “not liable” in Sarah Palin’s lawsuit towards the publication. She had sued the outlet for defamation over a 2017 editorial that advised she incited the capturing of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. The outlet subsequently issued a number of corrections on that editorial.
Media corporations additionally generally settle lawsuits to keep away from dragging them out in court. Last 12 months, Nicholas Sandmann reached a settlement with NBC over its protection of his interplay with Native American activist Nathan Phillips in the course of the 2019 March for Life. He additionally reached authorized settlements with CNN and the Washington Post over their protection of him throughout that occasion.
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