Lawsuit Against Fox News Claims Cable Television Is Unprotected by the First Amendment

I blogged about this lawsuit (Wash. League for Increased Transparency & Ethics [WASHLITE] v. Fox News) when it was filed last month; my view is that the suit is based on constitutionally protected expressions of opinion, and therefore barred by the First Amendment. But the plaintiff’s response to Fox’s motion to dismiss did much more than just argue that Fox’s statements were factually false—among other things, it claimed that cable television channels just aren’t protected by the First Amendment:

Fox cites to no Washington case or federal case which confirms that a cable television programmer/content provider has an independent First