Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

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nwsun- This is what we've come to............

"The appeals court's decision on the verdict was on the basis that FCC policies on news agencies reporting the truth did not legally require the station to report the truth in a news story, as FCC policies are not law.

From Wikipedia:

Lawsuit against Fox television

Fox television affiliate WTVT/Fox13 in Tampa, Florida was sued by Steve Wilson and Jane Akre, two former anchors over the issue of reporting the harmful effects of BGH on humans.[18] The journalists--originally, with station approval--wrote a story in 1996 that stated the human health risks of rBGH. However, the station rejected it and insisted they report a different story on rBGH with statistics supplied by Monsanto. They rewrote the story over 80 times but were eventually fired by Fox.

After a five-week trial which ended August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH." In that decision, the jury also found that Akre's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the sole reason for the termination and awarded $425,000 in damages.[19]

Fox appealed and prevailed February 14, 2003, when an appeals court issued a ruling reversing the jury, accepting a defense argument that had been rejected by three other judges on at least six separate occasions. The appeals court's decision on the verdict was on the basis that FCC policies on news agencies reporting the truth did not legally require the station to report the truth in a news story, as FCC policies are not law. The story that was subsequently reported on BGH contained no statistics that may have indicated a human health risk, as these statistics (the ones found by Akre and Wilson and mentioned in their original story) were ignored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_Growth_Hormone