Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sues AP, WaPo, BBC, Reuters over Covid censorship

Written by Margaret Menge on January 13, 2023. Posted in Current News

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News that he’s filed a lawsuit against the AP, Washington Post, BBC and Reuters alleging antitrust and First Amendment violations over their censorship of Covid-19 information.

Plaintiffs include Kennedy himself, Children’s Health Defense, Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, Dr. Joseph Mercola, independent journalist Ben Swann, Trial Site News and others.

The suit alleges violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act through the organization called the Trusted News Initiative, which was used by the media organizations to “choke off” independent news, getting social media platforms to shadow ban or suspend them for “reporting that challenges and competes with TNI members’ reporting on certain issues relating to COVID-19 and U.S. politics.”

The suit refers to this as a “group boycott.”

“The world’s dominant Internet platforms are facilities essential to the ability of small news publishers to compete and even to survive in the online news market. Indeed, for all practical purposes, to be denied access to those platforms is to be denied access to the market itself” the suit reads.

The plaintiffs also allege a violation of the First Amendment, citing a case from 1945, Associated Press v. United States, that notably, did not involve government censorship but instead the Associated Press prohibiting publication of certain stories by newspapers that did not subscribe to its news service.

“More than three-quarters of a century ago, the Supreme Court held that when news organizations combine to restrain what other, rival news suppliers can publish, antitrust law and the First Amendment speak with one voice in condemning such combinations,” plaintiffs say in the suit.

The suit includes a list of claims that were deemed “misinformation” and censored by one or more members of the Trusted New Initiative:

They are:

• Claims that COVID-19 was manmade.
• Claims that COVID-19 was manufactured or bioengineered.
• Claims that COVID-19 was created by a government or country.
• Claims that “contradict” WHO or U.S. health officials’ guidance on the treatment, prevention, or transmission of COVID-19.
• Claims about the COVID vaccines that contradict “expert consensus” from U.S. health authorities or the WHO. 
• Claims that Hydroxychloroquine (“HCQ”) is an effective treatment for COVID.
• Claims that Ivermectin (“IVM”) is an effective treatment for COVID.
• Claims that HCQ or IVM is safe to use as a treatment for COVID.
• Recommendations on the use of HCQ or IVM against COVID.
• Claims that COVID is no more dangerous to some populations than the seasonal flu.
• Claims that the mortality rate of COVID is for some populations the same or lower than that of the seasonal flu.
• Claims suggesting that the number of deaths caused by COVID is lower than official figures assert.
• Claims that face masks or mask mandates do not prevent the spread of COVID.
• Claims that wearing a face mask can make the wearer sick.
• Claims that COVID vaccines have not been approved.
• Claims that social distancing does not help prevent the spread of COVID.
• Claims that COVID-19 vaccines can kill or seriously harm people.
• Claims that the immunity from getting COVID is more effective than vaccination.
• Claims that the COVID vaccines are not effective in preventing infection.
• Claims that people who have been vaccinated against COVID can still spread the disease to others. 
• Claims that the COVID vaccines are toxic or harmful or contain toxic or harmful ingredients.
• Claims that fetal cells were used in the manufacture or production of any of the COVID vaccines.
• Claims that a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was found at a computer repair store in or around October 2020 or that the contents reportedly found on that laptop, including potentially compromising emails, videos, and photographs, were authentic.

   

  “Each and every one of these prohibited claims was deemed misinformation by TNI members even though each was either provably true, supported by substantial evidence, or at the very least open to legitimate debate in a free press,” the suit says.

  “In furtherance of the TNI agreements alleged above, TNI Big Tech Members Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft censored, shadow-banned, throttled, de-monetized, and de-platformed news publishers who engaged in Prohibited Reporting. In addition, Google and Microsoft acted to ensure that online news publishers who engaged in prohibited reporting would be artificially rendered invisible or demoted in search results.”

  The suit highlights the origins of Covid and the censorship of all discussion of the question of where and how the virus originated — which could not have been determined early on given the lack of any real investigation — and in fact still has not been determined.

More at crossroadsreport.substack.com

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