Leftist Media Bias Is a Threat to Democracy, Judge Warns in Scathing Dissent

Laurence Silberman, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, urged the Supreme Court to overturn the key defamation precedent New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), in part because the legacy media has become a threat to American Democracy. Silberman dissented from a court panel’s majority opinion in Tah and McClain v. Global Witness (2021), which ruled that Global Witness did not violate defamation law in falsely accusing Liberian officials of taking bribes from Exxon.