In 2018, a mass shooting took place at the Borderline Bar and Grill in southern California.
The media sought crime scene photos and medical/autopsy records of the victims of the shooting. The families were opposed to this invasion of privacy and sought to block the release.
- L.A. Times and other news outlets sue for 911 call records from Borderline shooting – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
- Families want Borderline records withheld (vcstar.com) – families did not want the media to have access to crime scene photos including photos of their deceased family members and their injuries, detailed medical and autopsy records, and other private information.
- Autopsy reports for Borderline mass shooting victims released after yearslong court fight (yahoo.com) and County Can’t Be Forced to Deny Autopsy Reports to Media (metnews.com)
Eventually, a Court ordered the release of the records.
In response, the media has sued the families of the victims to recover court costs and obfuscates that they are suing the families of the victims. In nearly the last paragraph of an editorial column, the VC Star writes this obtuse bit of prose:
We are seeking a fee award that reflects the cost of this battle and includes responding to the filings of the County of Ventura and those who separately sued. Under state law, if we don’t seek an award against all the opponents of disclosure, we risk not receiving any fee award at all.
The Star is seeking fees for an open records case. Here’s why (vcstar.com)
Where is the headline saying “BigMedia sues families of mass shooting victims”?
The bastions of free speech and disclosure do not clearly state they are suing the families of the victims. They obfuscated what they are doing. BigMedia says they do not intend to collect money from the victims’ families, presumably those families will have to hire attorneys to defend against this suit.
The purpose of this records request is so BigMedia can pretend they are policing the police (did the police respond fast enough?) but as a for-profit business, their goal is to write click-bait stories to sell eyeballs to advertisers, profiting from the pain of others. This is “playing Gotcha” over the graves of mass shooting victims.
The optics of this suit look horrible for BigMedia.
BigMedia obfuscates they are suing the families of the victims, and those families will incur legal costs. If anyone else was doing this, BigMedia would label those filing suit as oppressors!
I’ve emailed the paper and will update if I hear back.
Update – we had a cordial exchange, they agree the optics of this look terrible. I suggested doing a story about the families who are being sued and how this has impacted them – but, of course, they cannot comment or report on that because the paper is, in fact, a party to a lawsuit suing that group of people.
