LIT COMMENTARY AND UPDATES
MAY 24, 2024 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAY 25, 2024
MAY 25, 2024
Above is the date LIT Last updated this article.
Whilst reviewing the latest legal developments, LIT came across a recent press release from Jackson Walker LLP celebrating a First Amendment case victory, which they claimed assured the continued “freedom of the press.”
The lawsuit involved two well-known nonprofit investigative media outlets, the Texas Tribune and ProPublica. Jackson Walker was retained to defend against claims of business disparagement based on a joint-article about Kyle Hayungs and his business, MRG Medical LLC.
Jackson Walker successfully argued in the appellate court that the claims of “business disparagement” were more accurately described as “defamation,” invoking a one-year statute of limitations. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas Tribune’s home turf, agreed and awarded the media outlets an early victory on the grounds that MRG Medical LLC had missed the deadline to file their grievances. Consequently, the actual allegations were dismissed as moot.
LIT has provided extracts of those allegations from the appeal brief by MRG but takes no position on the accuracy of either party’s claims. These remain merely allegations. However, if true, the allegations raise concerns about the independence of these nonprofit investigative outlets.
Returning to our own headline, our online search for articles by the Texas Tribune and ProPublica pertaining to their involvement in the Chief Judge Bankruptcy scandal in Houston, Texas returned zero results. This raises serious red flags, especially when the scandal involved Jackson Walker LLP (“JW”), who benefited financially from the undisclosed relationship between the judge and his former clerk, who later became a partner at JW.
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Sewell Chan has been The Texas Tribune’s editor in chief since October 2021.
During his tenure the Tribune won its first National Magazine Award and was a Pulitzer finalist and a Peabody finalist for the first time.
Previously he was a deputy managing editor and then the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2021.
Chan worked at the New York Times from 2004 to 2018, as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy Op-Ed editor and international news editor.
He began his career as a local reporter at the Washington Post in 2000.
A child of immigrants, Chan was the first in his family to graduate from college.
He has a degree in social studies from Harvard and a master’s in political science from Oxford, where he studied on a British Marshall scholarship.
sewell.chan@texastribune.org
512-716-8619
@sewellchan on X
Stephen Engelberg was the founding managing editor of ProPublica from 2008–2012, and became editor-in-chief on January 1, 2013.
He came to ProPublica from The Oregonian in Portland, where he had been a managing editor since 2002.
Before joining The Oregonian, Mr. Engelberg worked for The New York Times for 18 years, including stints in Washington, D.C., and Warsaw, Poland, as well as in New York.
He is a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Mr. Engelberg’s work since 1996 has focused largely on the editing of investigative projects.
He started the Times’s investigative unit in 2000. Projects he supervised at the Times on Mexican corruption (published in 1997) and the rise of Al Qaeda (published beginning in January 2001) were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
During his years at The Oregonian, the paper won the Pulitzer for breaking news and was a finalist for its investigative work on methamphetamines and charities intended to help the disabled.
He is the co-author of “Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War” (2001).
stephen.engelberg@propublica.org
@SteveEngelberg on X
Jackson Walker Wins Dismissal of Business Disparagement Lawsuit Against ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
MAY 24, 2024 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAY 25, 2024
Jackson Walker has won a significant victory for leading nonprofit news organizations ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
On May 22, 2024, the Third Court of Appeals in Austin ordered the dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit alleging business disparagement, tortious interference, and civil conspiracy claims based on an investigative article about local governments’ response to COVID-19 and an entrepreneur’s attempts to market his company’s medical services during the early days of the pandemic.
The article, based on dozens of interviews and review of hundreds of emails and other documents, was co-published through the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative, a first-of-its-kind collaboration in which both organizations work together to publish investigative reporting for and about Texas.
ProPublica and The Texas Tribune defended the truth of their reporting and the public’s right to be informed about the actions of their elected representatives.
They also argued that plaintiff MRG Medical’s claims were barred by the statute of limitations.
The court of appeals agreed, rejecting the plaintiff’s attempts to creatively plead around the one-year statute that governs claims sounding in defamation.
The court ordered the dismissal of MRG’s claims and remanded the case to the district court to consider our clients’ request for court costs, attorney’s fees, and sanctions.
Jackson Walker partner Marc Fuller, who represented the media clients with attorneys Maggie Burreson and Joshua Romero, stated,
“We are pleased to have defended these two leading news organizations in protecting their First Amendment right to pursue the truth. This is a significant win for investigative journalism and the public’s right to know.”
The case is Texas Tribune, Inc.; Pro Publica, Inc.; Vianna Davila; Jeremy Schwartz; and Lexi Churchill v. MRG Medical LLC, No. 03-23-00293-CV, on appeal from the 345th District Court of Travis County.
For more information about the lawsuit, view the articles published by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
Meet Our Team
Marc Fuller represents publishers, internet companies, and other businesses in a variety of commercial disputes.
His media litigation experience includes defamation, privacy, copyright, and other disputes over content and newsgathering.
He has extensive experience representing technology companies and online services in disputes over content moderation, user anonymity, and digital privacy.
Marc has also handled a broad range of litigation for nonmedia companies, focusing on appeals, class actions, and First Amendment matters.
He has authored amicus briefs in media and First Amendment cases in the Texas Supreme Court, Fifth Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court.
Maggie I. Burreson is a litigation associate who focuses on handling media and entertainment disputes for journalists, news outlets, and other media organizations.
She has represented her media clients in numerous defamation, libel, and business disparagement suits.
Maggie has helped author numerous amicus briefs in media and First Amendment matters in the Fifth Circuit.
She also represents businesses in a variety of nonmedia matters, with a particular emphasis on class actions and appeals.
Joshua A. Romero is a trial and appellate lawyer who has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts across the country in complex commercial litigation and First Amendment litigation.
Josh has successfully tried cases ranging from multimillion-dollar corporate disputes and consumer fraud cases to construction cases.
In 2015, he assisted his clients in obtaining the largest settlement in Texas and the fourth largest settlement in the United States, as featured in the National Law Journal.
Founded in 1887, Jackson Walker has grown to become the largest law firm in the state of Texas.
With about 30% of the Firm’s more than 500 attorneys practicing litigation, Jackson Walker has one of the largest trial practices in the Southwest and was identified among the top law firms “Most Feared in Litigation” by BTI Consulting Group in 2022 and 2023.
For over 115 years, Jackson Walker’s Media Law group has represented clients in the television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and publishing sectors related to litigation and transactional matters involving news content, employment, entertainment, intellectual property, advertising, and other related matters.
To learn more about our experience defending First Amendment rights, visit the Trial & Appellate Litigation and Media Law practice pages.
🔥SDTX JUDGE FALSEHOODS REVEALED
Chief Judge David R. Jones @uscourts, who resigned after his secret relationship with a @Jackson_Walker lawyer was revealed, attempted to head off rumors about the relationship by asking the firm to file a false, partial disclosure in 2022. 👉 pic.twitter.com/lu4JftKNqp— lawsinusa (@lawsinusa) May 24, 2024
MRG’s Brief Spells Out the Conflicts of Interest and Appearances of Impropriety ($$$)
SEP 6, 2023 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAY 25, 2024
“This is case concerns the intentional disparagement of MRG’s products and services by the Media Defendants to benefit Community Labs, LLC (“Community Labs”), an entity founded by the Chairman of the Tobin Endowment and one of the Media Defendants’ largest donors.
Although the Media Defendants’ missions are to allegedly expose abuse of power and betrayals of public trust they are beholden to their donors who power the Media Defendants’ work through their contributions.
Bruce Bugg is the Chairman and Trustee of the Tobin Endowment, a private charitable foundation, which contributed over $1,280,000.00 dollars to the Texas Tribune in 2021, and co-founder of Community Labs.
The Tobin Endowment has donated over $1,500,000.00 to the Texas Tribune.
Graham Weston, co-founder of Community Labs, held an advisory role with the Tobin Endowment. The separate donations from the founding members of Community Labs was never noted or disclosed to the readers in the article or in any further amended articles.
Furthermore, J. Tullos Wells, III, the last founder of Community Labs also donated to the Texas Tribune.
On September 25, 2020, the disparaging Article was published by the Media Defendants, and within two weeks later, on October 6, 2020, Bexar County Commissioners Court gave the entire two million dollars of its Covid testing funds to Community Labs and the three major donors of the Texas Tribune, Bruce Bugg, Graham Weston, and Tullos Wells.
Community Labs would go on to receive additional public funds through Bexar County Commissioners Court: approximately $305,000.00 on October 20, 2020 and $1,000,000.00 on December 15, 2020.
In addition, on April 6, 2021, Bexar County approved a new $4,000,000.00 budget, amending the agreement between Community Labs for Covid-19 testing services.
In addition to the financial relationships discussed above between the founding members of Community Labs and the Media Defendants, Graham Weston is a founder of the San Antonio Report, a San Antonio media company, that republished the Article.
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