TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! DECLARATION OF STEVE ROSE DISPUTES DEFAMATION CLAIM OF KANSAS STATE SENATOR DENNING!!!



Friday followup in an ongoing complaint moving through the legal system.

Most of these cases are inevitably settled but an objective observer can see the tide turning in favor of journalist Steve Rose.

Moreover . . .

IN A DECLARATION FILED TO TODAY IN JOCO COURTS STEVE ROSE DISPUTES THE CLAIMS OF KANSAS STATE SENATOR DENNING AND OFFERS A GLIMPSE AT HIS COUNTER ARGUMENT!!!

Here are the highlights with TKC marking the most important passage that wins this case:

DECLARATION OF STEVE ROSE

The main points . . .

“Denning’s claims must fail because of basic free-speech principles which are firmly embedded in the legal traditions of this nation and the state of Kansas, and which afford the highest level of protection possible to criticism of public officials. Our legal system is based on the bedrock principle that “the people, not the government, possess the absolute sovereignty,” and censorial power therefore exits “in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people.”

The allegations are “vague and deliberately generalized,” asserting that the entire column is false and legally actionable because the conversation occurred at a different time than the article may have implied, and that Denning never used the exact words that Rose clearly paraphrased. Denning’s chief of staff even acknowledged that the meeting between Rose and Denning at Houlihan’s restaurant, where Denning made the statements to Rose, had occurred, but emphasized with regard to one part of the column, that Rose’s description was “not how Denning would explain it.” That is not enough to establish a viable defamation claim.

In reality, Rose’s comments are substantially true in that they report Denning’s “steadfast, unchanged” views on Medicaid expansion which he has voiced for years. 

Given Denning’s manifest opposition to expansion “which is evident even to casual political observers, Denning would have a stronger case against Rose if the article in question had stated that Denning thought Kansas could afford Kelly’s proposal.”

The law presumes that someone in such a powerful position as Denning’s will be a person “of fortitude,” who is “able to thrive in a hardy climate,” and should expect to be subjected to criticism.

Many of the statements of which Denning complains are “fairly generic references to common public-policy positions, which would be expected of a former health-industry executive, who is almost single-handedly blocking Medicaid expansion in the State of Kansas.”

“[D]espite Denning’s sweeping and ill-founded assertions that all references to him in the challenged column were false and defamatory, he cannot hide from or disguise his continued, well-documented opposition to expanding Medicaid in Kansas.”
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Developing . . .

Comments

  1. Kansas GOP thought they could create their own media organization with a few blogs and internet spam. They got frustrated when nobody was reading, not even their own supporters. Sad that Steve got caught in the middle of that. He's one of the more enlightened Johnson County Republicans and the GOP was short sighted to push him out in favor of the Trump fad that didn't work out for Kobach at all.

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    1. Kraken is nothing close to being a Republican. Maybe in name only but even then that would've been only to schmooze in joco circles before they jumped the prog shark

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  2. I'm on Team Steve fuck that hypocritical Denning.

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  3. Who's this geezer?

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  4. Steve will win this one. Never should have been filed.

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  5. Tony, you are defending a liar who is not a journalist. He admits he lied to his editors. He lied about an interview, he made up a quote, has no contemporaneous notes to back it up.This is what got Finn Bullers in trouble re Sen. Kay O'Connor.

    Then Rose, when caught, lied again to Frank Denning, promising to resign IF Denning dropped pursuing legal channels. But Rose had already resigned!

    Kinda like when Rose was for it before he was against it, re Union Station and BiState II?

    He is a weasel. And that cannot be prosecuted against me, because the truth is its own defense.

    Rose is a privileged son of a millionaire who has lived on Daddy's coattails since Viet Nam, when he jumped off a bus and pitched a job writing newsletters to send back home to Stan Rose, to get out of infantry duty.

    He made up lies about me when he was running the Sun, which he bought back for pennies on the dollar from the folks who bought the Sun. It never ends with his silver spoon adventures. But at least this time, the Star cut him loose. And he is dangling in the wind. But his reputation is toast, and he is no longer Mr. Johnson County.

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  6. Normally a personal declaration or affidavit recounts factual matters not opinions. Rose must have thought he was writing another one of his bullshit Star columns. This reads like a legal brief by a first year law student.

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  7. I meant Jim Denning, not Sheriff Frank Denning.

    And 7:55 is absolutely spot on. Steverino still writing fictional columns, but now submitting them to the court!

    He absolutely lied. Made quotes up to cover up his own laziness. Even admitted he should have killed the column!!!! It's over, Steve! You have zero credibility. And nobody in Johnson County cares what you think...

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  8. 7:53 PM For the win

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  9. THANK YOU TRACY THOMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I was going to write a review of the facts in this matter, but you beat me to it. Tracy is spot-on!

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  10. Tracy is saying it like it is. Only I never ever thought of Steve Rose as a writer or even Mr.Johnson County.

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  11. Ms. Tracy's comments read like those that might be made by a jilted mistress. Hmmmm.

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  12. Tracy doesn't know what she's talking about, she's just spewing Denning's talking points. Not even any original ideas.

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