News outlet asks court to dismiss former Mississippi governor’s defamation lawsuit

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A local news outlet that helped expose a wide-reaching public corruption scandal has filed its legal defense against a defamation lawsuit brought by former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. The news outlet, Mississippi Today, is arguing that it engaged in constitutionally protected speech. In Mississippi Today’s first set of court filings since Bryant sued the outlet and its CEO for allegedly defaming him in public comments on the misspending of $77 million of federal welfare funds, attorney Henry Laird outlined 19 defenses against the former governor’s claims and requested that his complaint be dismissed. Bryant’s July 26 lawsuit came just over two months after Mississippi Today won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the misspending of welfare funds.