Daily Wire Gonna Sue All Media For Libelslandering Their Hate Hustler With Direct Quotes

Sure you are, little buddy.

Look out lamestream media! Daily Wire is about to sue all y'all into the ground for noticing that their boy Michael Knowles is a trans-bashing attention whore who publicly advocates for genocide.

“We are demanding full retractions and apologies from @thedailybeast, @HuffPost, and @RollingStone for their false and libelous claims about @michaeljknowles, and have referred these all to our General Counsel.”

— Alyssa Cordova (@Alyssa Cordova) 1677975270 

Oh, do you, Alyssa? Are you henceforth and forthwith demanding that Messrs. Beast, Stone, and Post retract their defamatory statements calling out that Howdy Doody-looking bigot? Will you be telling Daddy Benny about it if they don't comply with your Twitter tantrum? Because defamation is a legal term with an actual meaning, as Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, a graduate of Harvard Law, knows perfectly well. And although it appears from LinkedIn that your general counsel has been practicing law for less than a decade and lacks extensive First Amendment experience, you can be sure that even that guy knows that this ain't defamation.

Knowles, a failed actor who reinvented himself as a reactionary, fascist shit-stirrer, is riding high on a wave of anti-trans bigotry. Less than a week ago he earned ire from decent people for calling to "ban transgenderism entirely" and labeling gender-affirming healthcare a "weird, occult sexual ritual."

And, look, your Wonkette is not new . We do appreciate that he repeated his remarks for the crowd of dozens at CPAC because he intends to make his name by spewing hatred of trans people and provoking "liberal tears."

“Michael Knowles is openly calling for genocide against trans people at CPAC. "Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely." https: //t.co/uW6pAw02vI”

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1677955206 

It's hard to know where the line is between sounding the alarm about the murderous rage against trans people that has become the Republican Party's main platform and giving lowlife dweebs like Knowles the media oxygen he needs to survive. Because his arguments are a tautological, anti-science arglebargle that would convince no one who wasn't already Team Bigot.

There can be no middle way when dealing with transgenderism. It is all or nothing. If transgenderism is true, if men really can become women, then it's true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false, as it is, if men really can't become women, as they cannot, then it's false for everybody, too. And if it's false, then we should not indulge it. Especially since that indulgence requires taking away the rights and customs of so many people. If it is false, then for the good of society, and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely. The whole preposterous ideology, at every level.

If truth is falsity, and falsity is truth, then reductio ad absurdum , carry the one, and apply the "I am always the victim" algorithm, and bingo bango bongo , trans people need to not exist. NOT THAT HE'S CALLING FOR GENOCIDE, MIND YOU! Oh, hey, can anyone come up with some historical examples of nations which sought to remove wrongthinking subgroups from society to make it rein pure? How did that one work out?

Knowles has defended himself by mumbling some nonsense syllables about transgender Americans not being an ethnic group, or some such? Honestly, who gives a shit what that hate hustler has to say. And yeah, he repeated the threats to sue on his own Twitter timeline. Your Wonkette DGAF.

What is interesting is watching the (comparative) adults in the room lose their shit over this nonsense and immediately point to it as reason to do the dumb thing that their base is clamoring for. Here's Sen. Mike Lee from Utah using his "based" personal account to insist that Knowles has a winning case, if we all just hold hands and pretend that the laws are different from what they actually are.

“It is indeed libelous. It’s an example of how a bad Supreme Court ruling from 1964 (NY Times v. Sullivan) has created a monster—giving the news media a license to lie about any public figure who can’t prove that the reporter acted with “actual malice,” which is nearly impossible.”

— Mike Lee (@Mike Lee) 1678039599 

This is clearly a concession that Knowles's hypothetical libel case is DOA, which Lee, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito twice , knows damn well. But repealing the New York Times v. Sullivan standard for defamation of a public figure — i.e. knowing or reckless publication of false facts — has become a conservative cause ever since Justices Thomas and Gorsuch signaled that they might be open to it. In fact, Florida has a bill pending in its legislature right now to do just that, but only for media defendants.

Trump himself famously promised to "open up the libel laws" back on the campaign trail in 2016 — a position roughly analogous to Richard Spencer saying that he wants to open up the laws making it illegal to punch Nazis. Trump was at the time peddling fantastic lies about Hillary Clinton, particularly about her health and her family charity, the Clinton Global Initiative. The former president tells 50 lies before breakfast, apparently as a matter of principle. The last person on earth who should be howling to make it easier to sue for defamation of a public figure is Donald freakin' Trump.

And the last political party that should be demanding repeal of the Sullivan standard is the GOP, which owes its position in no small measure to a media echo chamber devoted to flogging nonsensical lies about everything , but mostly some about a looming genocide of white people by an invading or uppity brown horde. FFS, Fox News is currently in the middle of a $1.6 billion defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems in which the plaintiff has elicited proof that Fox knowingly told lies because it was afraid of losing its audience to Newsmax, which was peddling the election fraud hoax 24-7. We're all treating Dominion as if it's a public figure under Sullivan , although the court has not yet ruled on that. But if the Republicans got their way and ditched the Sullivan standard, it would be even easier for everyone from Hunter Biden to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to Hillary Clinton to sue Fox, Newsmax, OAN, the Gateway Pundit, and of course the Daily Wire for filling the ether with a fog of abject lies.

In summary and in conclusion, Republicans are trans-bashing ghouls and we need to be good allies. And 51-year-old men who describe themselves as "based" should probably delete their browser history.

And, PS, good luck recovering for defamation when you yourself have republished the supposedly defamatory statement far and wide.

Catch Liz Dye on Opening Arguments podcast.

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