Lauren McCauley, Editor of the “Beacon” a Publication of the Highly-Regarded, Non-profit, Maine People’s Alliance. “MPA” has offices in Portland, Lewiston and Bangor.
Maine People’s Alliance announced today that it has won a lawsuit against it initiated by Epoch Times, a far right media outlet that promotes conspiracy theories. The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Epoch Times, objected to a report in the “Beacon” on a speech its managing editor gave to the Maine Republican Party last year according to a press release issued by Lauren McCauley, “Beacon” editor.
The lawsuit demanded that the “Beacon” remove the article or it would be sued for “tens of thousands of dollars.” The lawsuit accused the “Beacon” of libel.
“We knew that what we were rporting was truthful and accurate. We also knew that this was an attempt from the extreme right to silence critics. We refused to give in and so they sued us” wrote McCauley. “The judge ruled that our journalsim is protectd by the Frist Amendment’s safeguarding of truthful reporting and commentary,” McCauley continued.
Unrelated but mindful of this lawsuit was the news today that a federal Judge plans to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Sarah Palin against The New York Times even as the jury continues in its deliberations of the case. Judge Jed Rakoff maintained that the Palin legal team has failed to “meet the extremely high legal standard required” according to a front page article in The Times today by Jeremy W. Peters.
Palin is the former Alaska Governor who was tapped by the late Senator John McCain in his bid for the presidency in 2008 to serve on his ticket as vice-president. Palin won national attention when she was interviewed by television reporter Katy Couric. Couric asked Palin what publications she read. Palin’s response was that she read all of them. However, she was unable to name one publication that she read when pressed. This interaction between the two high profile women did much more for Couric’s jouranlistic career than it did for Palin’s political career.