MICHAEL WALSH: Are the Courts Moving to Require a More Responsible Press?

In short, the dam may be breaking. James O’Keefe’s gadfly Project Veritas won a small but significant victory against the Times the other day when a New York State Supreme Court judge ruled against a Times motion to dismiss a defamation suit against a report that called a Veritas video of possible election chicanery in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional district in Minnesota “deceptive… with no verifiable evidence… probably part of a coordinated disinformation effort” and attempted to link the video to the Trump campaign, of course.

“Stating that the video is ‘deceptive’ and stating ‘without verifiable evidence’ in a factual way in a news article certainly presents the statement as fact, not opinion,” wrote Justice Charles Wood. He said the Times may have been motivated by “actual malice” and had acted with “reckless disregard.”

Good for him. Freedom of the press is a wonderful thing—especially now, when the “progressive” left has all but called for its abolition of the first amendment in its quest for a one-party socialist state.

For more than half a century, the mainstream media has abused its powers under the protective shield of the Sullivan decision. At this point, however, with the national media now weaponized against traditional American law and values, the ruling is no longer a shield, but a sword.

Read the whole thing.