ANTI-SLAPP

Judge Tosses OAN Defamation Suit Against Rachel Maddow

Maddow said the pro-Trump channel “really, literally is paid Russian propaganda.” OAN cried libel.

A judge has thrown out a defamation lawsuit brought by One America News Network, a conservative channel praised by President Donald Trump, against MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. The left-leaning anchor devoted time on her nightly show to discussing a July Daily Beast story detailing how the network had hired an on-air reporter, Kristian Brunovich Rouz, who simultaneously writes for Sputnik, a Kremlin-owned site. Maddow said that OAN “really, literally is paid Russian propaganda.” The channel’s lawyers responded that OAN was “as American as apple pie” and sued Comcast, MSNBC, and Maddow personally in September in San Diego court for $10 million in damages. Maddow’s attorneys filed a motion to strike the proceedings based on California’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation statute (Anti-SLAPP), which the judge granted May 22.