Bob McCulloch and Jennifer Joyce

Bob McCulloch and Jennifer Joyce

A second free speech intimidation issue that has right-wing bloggers–and even the governor of Missouri–turning red appears to be false.

It all began with a report by a TV station in Missouri about the formation of a “truth squad” in that state to counter inaccurate advertisements.

That report, which you can watch here, quoted two well-known prosecutors in that state who are affiliated with the Obama campaign, Robert McCulloch and Jennifer Joyce. They reportedly planned “to respond immediately to any ads and statements that might violate Missouri ethics laws.”

In fact, the video footage that they included from the two prosecutors did not mention anything about enforcing any laws. McCulloch and Joyce only spoke about the need to tell the truth in response to deceptive ads.

McCulloch is the St. Louis County District Attorney and Joyce is the St. Louis City Circuit Attorney.

In the video, Joyce said:

We want to keep this campaign focused on issues. We don’t want people to get distracted and Missourians don’t want to be distracted by these divisive character attacks. So we’re here to respond to any character attacks, to set the record straight.

McCulloch said:

Whether it is directly attributable to the campaigns or to one of the soft money operations, if they’re not gonna tell the truth then somebody’s got step up and say “wait a minute, that’s not the truth, this is the truth.”

There was nothing said by either McCulloch or Joyce that implied any sort of legal action. But conservative blogs and media outlets immediately claimed that the two prosecutors were threatening to bring charges. The Worldnetdaily, one of the most widely read conservative online news sources, declared:

A team of Obama-supporting prosecutors and sheriffs in Missouri is preparing to pursue legal challenges to any presidential campaign ads deemed to be false or misleading.

Gateway Pundit, a prominent conservative blogger, went even further:

St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out falsely against Barack Obama.

The Republican governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, went still further, issuing a statement accusing the Obama campaign of “police state tactics” and of “abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.”

But neither Joyce nor McCulloch had said anything about bringing legal actions, only about speaking out and debunking the substance of such ads. Joyce issued a statement explicitly denying any prosecutorial intent:

As a citizen, I believe that elections should be about issues. I also have enormous respect for our First Amendment and freedom of speech. My sole purpose in participating in this initiative is about getting truthful information to the voters. This has never been or never will be about prosecuting people.

Clearly there are those who are attempting to twist the purpose of this initiative for their own benefit. This attack is a great example of how the truth is distorted in campaigns and what we’re trying to stand up against.

And McCulloch did as well:

Neither I nor any other person made any of the above statements, nor did I or any other person say anything from which a responsible journalist could infer that we said or even intended the above. The mere fact that my statement of “… if they’re not going to tell the truth then somebody’s got to step up and say, ‘wait a minute that’s not true’ …” becomes “… threatened to file criminal libel charges” clearly demonstrates the need for someone to step up and call out those who intentionally distort or ignore the truth.

First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law School noted on his blog that Missouri doesn’t even have a criminal libel statute. He also notes that Missouri’s election laws do not ban false statements in campaigns.

Prosecutors are elected officials just like mayors, legislators or governors. They can and do endorse candidates and speak on behalf of those candidates and when they do so, it is assumed that they are speaking as private citizens.

St. Louis Today, meanwhile, reports that the McCain campaign also has “truth squads” in various states that include officials with prosecutorial powers, including at least one state attorney general.