The Arizona Supreme Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by failed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Daniel McCarthy against James T. Harris, a talk show host on KFYI-AM in Phoenix. According to Tucson.com, McCarthy had taken issue with comments made by Harris on his show, “The Conservative Circus,” which were related to an event at a state Capitol rally after the November 2020 election. Harris is a host on the iHeartMedia news/talk station.
During the event, McCarthy’s supporters had chanted for him to speak during a speech by Harris, and the microphone was passed from Harris to McCarthy. Harris then criticized McCarthy during two segments of his radio show, accusing him of having no control over his emotions or his supporters and stating that they were acting like “ANTIFA.”
However, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Harris’s comments were political commentary protected by the First Amendment. Justice William Montgomery, writing for the court, ordered the defamation lawsuit filed by McCarthy to be dismissed in full.
Montgomery dismissed seven of the statements as clearly either not factual statements, probable as false, or both, while the two others were also considered political in context.
The court agreed with Harris and iHeartMedia, the owners of KFYI, which broadcasts his show, that the statements “were rhetorical hyperbole incapable of being proved false and protected by the First Amendment and were therefore not actionable.”
Montgomery noted that Harris bills himself as the ringmaster of “The Conservative Circus” and describes the show as a mix of political commentary and opinion presented entertainingly from one side of the political spectrum. The justice wrote, “Such is the essence of radio talk shows today.”
