Wow, Turning Point USA just provided a case study in how to respond to a false media story aimed at conservatives.
The conservative group’s efforts resulted in an on-air apology from ABC’s “The View” to the student organization on Wednesday.
On Monday’s program, “The View” co-hosts mocked Turning Point’s annual Student Action Summit, which took place in Tampa, Florida over the weekend, with speakers that included former President Donald Trump.
That in-and-of itself was not the problem, but when co-host Joy Behar associated the summit with neo-Nazi protesters assembled outside it, that was too far.
“Neo-Nazis were out there in the front of the conference with anti-Semitic slurs and, you know, the Nazi swastika and a picture of a so-called Jewish person with exaggerated features, just like Goebbels did during the Third Reich. It’s the same thing, right out of that same playbook,” Behar said, according to Fox News.
Later on in the program, “The View” co-host Sara Haines read an on-air legal disclaimer to inform viewers that Turning Point condemned the neo-Nazis protesters who had “nothing to do” with the summit.
“But you let them in,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg inaccurately retorted. “You let them in and you knew what they were, so you are complicit.”
Then “The View” had to issue another clarification Monday, saying Turning Point did not let them in.
“My point was metaphorical,” Goldberg said.
THREAD: Yesterday, @TheView & Whoopi Goldberg smeared and lied about TPUSA regarding an incident where supposed “nazis” showed up outside of the Student Action Summit. pic.twitter.com/9xonX9jC25
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) July 26, 2022
Behar also asked during Monday’s show, “Where was DeSantis?” The governor had spoken at the summit but not the day the neo-Nazi protesters were there, so Behar had her facts wrong too.
The clarifications “The View” made Monday did not cut it for Turning Point.
The group’s founder Charlie Kirk tweeted Tuesday, “Talking to lawyers. Many think we have a strong case. You cannot smear minors as Nazis and get away with it. It impacts them for the rest of their life. #SueTheView.”
Talking to lawyers. Many think we have a strong case. You cannot smear minors as Nazis and get away with it. It impacts them for the rest of their life. #SueTheView
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 27, 2022
Recall how false and misleading media reporting regarding Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann at the Lincoln Memorial in 2019 resulted in CNN and The Washington Post settling multi-million defamation suits with him.
Turning Point’s in-house counsel Veronica Peterson sent a scathing cease and desist letter to ABC executives Tuesday demanding an on-air apology by Thursday or legal action would follow.
“The View hosts intentionally and falsely associated TPUSA with neo-Nazi protestors outside the event placing TPUSA in denigrating and false light and negatively impacting its public perception. Such action will not be tolerated,” the letter said, according to Fox News.
“Specifically, The View hosts insidiously and cavalierly stated that TPUSA ‘let [neo-Nazis] in’ to its SAS event, metaphorically ‘embrase[d] them’ and that neo-Nazis were ‘in the mix of people.’ The assertion that TPUSA is complicit or affiliated in any way with the neo-Nazi protesters outside the event is outlandish, false, defamatory, and disgraceful,” the letter continued.
“To be abundantly clear, TPUSA aggressively and completely condemns the ideologies of neo-Nazism and has zero connection to the protestors outside the event. Since these individuals were located on public property, TPUSA security attempted to, but was not permitted to remove them,” wrote Peterson.
It’s pretty clear that they weren’t “welcomed”
Why are you blatantly lying @WhoopiGoldberg?#SueTheView https://t.co/wRcS4n9pr1 pic.twitter.com/362wnuzJ8u
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 26, 2022
Peterson then warned ABC how things were likely to go for the network in court, including an order to pay monetary damages and all legal fees accrued during the litigation.
“In cases where the communication is of such a nature that the court can presume as a matter of law that the communication will tend to degrade or disgrace the party defamed, special damages are presumed,” the letter stated.
“Therefore, TPUSA demands that ABC immediately cease and desist from further unlawfully defaming TPUSA, retract the defamatory statements identified above, and issue a public statement apologizing for and correcting the above defamatory and false statements,” wrote Peterson.
The on-air apology came Wednesday.
“On Monday we talked about the fact that there were openly neo-Nazi demonstrators outside the Florida Student Action Summit of the Turning Point USA group,” Haines began.
The View apologizes for wrongly linking neo-Nazi protestors to Turning Point USA. pic.twitter.com/uVUo7Cfykr
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 27, 2022
“We want to make clear that these demonstrators were gathered outside the event and that they were not invited or endorsed by Turning Point USA,” she continued.
“A Turning Point USA spokesman said the qroup, quote ‘100 percent condemns those ideologies’ and said Turning Point USA security tried to remove the demonstrators, but could not because they were on public property,” Haines said, quoting a TPUSA statement.
“Also,” Haines continued, “Turning Point USA wanted to clarify, wanted us to clarify, that this was a Turning Point USA summit and not a Republican Party event.
So, we apologize for anything we said that may have been unclear on these points.”
Do you think Turning Point USA handled this matter effectively?
Turning Point was not entirely satisfied with “The View’s apology, tweeting Wednesday that, “The apology was issued by Sara Haines. Whoopi remained silent and has not retracted her comments that TPUSA ‘metaphorically’ embraced ‘Nazis.’”
Still, the apology did come and it came in rapid fashion: So, even if it’s not a completely satisfying win, it was a solid reminder for conservatives around the country that fighting back matters.
And it demonstrated how it can be done.
Turning Point leaders quickly responded to the false reporting about their event, mounted an aggressive online campaign to counter it, and brought in the legal guns to show they meant business.
Congratulations to Charlie Kirk and the Turning Point team for showing the way!
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