WASHINGTON (CN) - A writer described as having made a white-power hand gesture brought a federal complaint against a Fusion reporter, saying she is the victim of ideological bias.
“Just two people doing a white power hand gesture in the White House,” Fusion’s Emma Roller tweeted on April 28, attaching an image of two fair-skinned blonds in front of a White House backdrop.
The man and the woman in the picture are each smiling with one hand each at shoulder height, index fingers and thumbs touching in a gesture widely understood as meaning “OK.”
Leading up to Roller’s tweet, however, internet trolls at the website 4chan had been working on a hoax conspiracy called “Operation O-KKK,” meant to spread the idea that white supremacists had adopted the OK signal as a secret hand gesture.
Mike Cernovich, the man in the picture, even appeared to pat himself on the back when Roller tweeted out condemnation.
“Trap was set and they walked into it,” he wrote on April 29. “Fake news looks trivial, absurd, and most of all dishonest.”
Cassandra Fairbanks, the woman in the picture, meanwhile brought a federal defamation complaint against Roller in Washington.
The June 1 complaint says Roller’s tweet has disrupted her day-to-day life, frustrated her professional opportunities and invited threats of violence against her.
"The serious nature of the allegation that plaintiff made a white power hand gesture should have heightened defendant’s due diligence in confirming the veracity of the claim before publishing the caption," the 9-page complaint states. "Defendant acted with actual malice when she published the caption either with actual knowledge that the caption was not true or with reckless disregard as to its truth.”
Seeking an injunction and damages, Fairbanks is represented by Los Angeles attorney Robert Barnes and Daniel Mauler, an attorney with the Alexandria, Virginia, firm Redmon, Peyton & Braswell.
Best known for representing Ralph Nader and Wesley Snipes, attorney Barnes claimed that Roller will have a hard time denying malice since she has written for the New York Times and The Atlantic.
"If that's true, she should resign from the profession of journalism because she has no business in it," Barnes said in a phone interview.
Fusion Vice President David Ford called the lawsuit frivolous, saying the news website will fully support and defend Roller.
"This suit is an obvious publicity stunt and an attempt to intimidate reporters who scrutinize the activities of the extreme right," Ford said in a statement.
Though the Anti-Defamation League called Operation O-KKK a hoax last month, it questioned the motives of the people involved.
