A scandal that has sullied, perhaps forever, the reputations of the Pulitzer prizes, the New York Times and the Washington Post, is going to be further explored, after a ruling from the Florida Appellate Court that rejected the defendants’ attempt to have the case brought by President Donald Trump dismissed.
The scenario that triggered the legal defamation case is that the Pultizer board awarded a prize for reporting to the Times and Post on their work “exposing” the Russian collusion conspiracy about Trump’s campaign in 2016.
The problem is that the conspiracy theory was based on fabrications, and the reporting portrayed those ideologies as fact. And then when the truth was revealed, Pulitzer officials didn’t recall, and the publications didn’t reject, their prizes.
It was Trump himself who went to social media to note the decision to allow the case, filed in Okeechobee County, Florida, to continue. He charges that the Pulitzer decision to refuse to rescind the awards which essentially honored “fake news” constituted defamation.
“A large swath of Americans had a tremendous misunderstanding of the truth at the time the Times’ and the Post’s propagation of the Russia Collusion Hoax dominated the media,” according to the complaint. “Remarkably, they were rewarded for lying to the American public.”
President Trump made the announcement on TRUTH Social.
Pulitzer officials said they were “evaluating” their next step. It’s one of a multitude of cases brought by Trump against media and other organizations, some of which already have been settled with huge payments to him.
It was ex-FBI chief Robert Mueller who investigated, for years, those claims. And found no evidence to support the allegations.
Pulitzer officials claimed the publications’ reports were “deeply sourced” and “relentlessly reported,” even though the claims were based on lies and fabrications.
Trump, on social media, responded to the attacks by the publications and the new court decision.
“BREAKING! In a major WIN in our powerful lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board regarding the illegal and defamatory ‘Award’ of their once highly respected ‘Prize,’ to fake, malicious stories on the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, by the Failing New York Times and the Washington Compost, the Florida Appellate Court viciously rejected the Defendants’ corrupt attempt to halt the case. They won a Pulitzer Prize for totally incorrect reporting about the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax. Now they admit it was a SCAM, never happened, and their reporting was totally wrong, in fact, the exact opposite of the TRUTH. They’ll have to give back their ‘Award.’ They were awarded for false reporting, and we can’t let that happen in the United States of America. We are holding the Fake News Media responsible for their LIES to the American People, so we can, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
As explained by the Gateway Pundit, Trump’s case “challenges the legitimacy of the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes awarded to fake news, The New York Times and The Washington Post, for their coverage of the debunked Trump-Russia collusion hoax.”
It was documentation from the Senate Judiciary Committee that confirmed the reports by the publications were “not only dishonest but also as an early attempt to fuel the baseless Russiagate narrative,” the report said.
Eventually, evidence showed failed Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton’s’ campaign “orchestrated the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.”
Despite the evidence the stories were fraudulent, the Pulitzer officials refused to retract the honors.
