General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should it be against the law for news networks to lie? [View all]tech3149
(4,452 posts)Jane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson are former employees of Fox owned-and-operated station WTVT in Tampa, Florida. In 1997, they were fired from the station after refusing to knowingly include false information in their report concerning the Monsanto Companys production of RBGH, a drug designed to make cows produce more milk. They successfully sued under Floridas whistle blower law and were awarded a US $425,000 settlement by jury decision. However, Fox appealed to an appellate court and won, after the court declared that the FCC policy against falsification that Fox violated was just a policy and not a law, rule, or regulation, and so the whistle blower law did not apply.
The court agreed with WTVTs (Fox) argument that the FCCs policy against the intentional falsification of the news which the FCC has called its news distortion policy does not qualify as the required law, rule, or regulation under section 448.102.[...] Because the FCCs news distortion policy is not a law, rule, or regulation under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under the whistle-blowers statute.[1]
http://www.foxbghsuit.com/home.htm#FOX