Westchester environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding that Daily Kos unmask an anonymous writer who depicted him as a neo-Nazi sympathizer.
A story published Aug. 29 in the progressive politics internet forum was headlined, “Anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. joins neo-Nazis in massive Berlin ”˜anti-corona”™ protest,” under the pseudonym DowneastDem.
The article was “disseminated recklessly and with actual malice,” Kennedy stated in a petition filed Nov. 30 in Westchester Supreme Court, and Daily Kos “knew that the article was false, or had no reasonable grounds for believing it was true.”
Kennedy ”“ son of former U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy who was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the presidency ”“ is an environmental law specialist and co-founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also known as a vaccine skeptic, questioning, for instance, whether there is a link between vaccines and autism.
DowneastDem stated that Kennedy spoke at a protest in Berlin organized by right-wing extremists, including anti-Semitic conspiracy groups and the neo-Nazi NPD party.
“Tens of thousands “corona-truthers”™ descended on Berlin today,” the brief article states, “to protest the measures implemented by Angela Merkel and her government to prevent the coronavirus spread.”
In truth, Kennedy states in the petition, he spoke in Berlin on Aug. 29, decrying Nazism and totalitarianism of all kinds, at an event organized by a democratic organization that opposes fascism and extremism.
The Daily Kos article was based on a German newspaper report that “confirms the falsity” of DowneastDems”™ account, according to the petition. Several coronavirus-related gatherings were held that day, for instance, and an individual interviewed by the German newspaper said she had not seen any neo-Nazis in the crowd.
Kennedy spoke at the Brandenburg Gate while right-wing extremists held a separate demonstration at The Reichstag, a six-minute walk away, according to Google map.
What”™s more, the petition claims, DowneastDem previously posted items that reveal ill will and spite toward Kennedy, referring to him as “notorious” and the “Kennedy family black sheep.”
Manhattan attorney P. Kent Correll demanded on Aug. 30 that the Daily Kos remove the article to “avoid the need for legal action.”
“By tarring Mr. Kennedy with Nazism and anti-Semitism,” the letter states, “you have covered two of the three most damaging accusations that anyone can levy at a public figure.”
Daily Kos did not take down the item, but posted the letter with the story.
Kennedy is asking the court for the right to subpoena Kos Media, “to identify the proper parties to any potential future lawsuit for libel regarding the defamatory article.”
The petition was filed by Manhattan attorney Craig Wenner, of Boies Schiller Flexner.
