Original Article | Archive
October 31, 2023
CBS 58 Capitol Reporter Emilee Fannon and WisPolitics.com Editor JR Ross discuss Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad and his political Super PAC.
An Oneida County court has ordered Minocqua brewery owner and progressive activist Kirk Bangstad to pay a local newspaper publisher $750,000 in damages for calling the journalist names on social media and alleging he failed to come to the aid of his dying brother 36 years ago, among other claims.
Bangstad, in a post on his Minocqua Brewing Co.’s Facebook page, decried the verdict as politically motivated and unfair and said he would appeal, but he acknowledged that he went too far in repeating rumors he’d heard about Lakeland Times publisher Gregg Walker’s history with his brother.
The suit was originally filed in May 2021 and pointed to Facebook posts from Bangstad calling Walker a “crook” and a “misogynist” and alleging that his paper had called a local community leader a disparaging term for someone with a cognitive disability. It was unusual among defamation suits involving the news media in that the newspaper was suing the politician — Bangstad ran for state Assembly as a Democrat in 2020 — and not the politician suing the news media.
Walker later amended that complaint twice, most recently in January of this year to include allegations Bangstad again made on Facebook that Walker had failed to come to the aid of his brother after a hunting accident in 1987, and that he’d manipulated his ailing father for financial gain.
A jury on Friday found all of Bangstad’s statements were defamatory.
Bangstad, who also funnels part of the proceeds from his brewery to his progressive super PAC, and The Lakeland Times, a weekly newspaper with a conservative editorial position, have clashed in print and online for years.
Walker on Monday said “the whole case deals with him saying I murdered my brother,” referring to an Aug. 8, 2022, post in which Bangstad said Walker “allegedly stood by and did nothing while his brother accidentally fell from a tree stand and died — who allegedly knew he would inherit the once-legitimate Lakeland Times if his brother was out of the picture.”
In reality, Walker was miles away from his brother when he accidentally shot himself during a hunting trip and was not in a position to provide aid.
Bangstad on Monday said he “retracted” his allegation about the brother’s death after getting further information from the person who told him the story. He also said he was wrong about the paper having called the local official a slur.
Key to the outcome of his case, he said, is that the judge refused to rule that Walker is a “public figure” and thus required to meet a higher legal standard for proving Bangstad defamed him.
Under U.S. Supreme Court decisions, false statements about a public figure are defamatory if they are made with “actual malice” and “a reckless disregard for the truth.” False statements about a private figure, however, need only be negligent to be considered defamatory.
“Imagine if anybody who says something bad about somebody else on Facebook can get sued,” Bangstad said. “It opens up a huge can of worms for just money flowing through defamation.”
But Walker’s attorney, Matthew Fernholz, said the question of whether Walker — and Bangstad, who had made a counterclaim that was dismissed before trial — was a “general purpose public figure” was argued extensively prior to trial and Circuit Judge Leon Stenz made his decision on the basis of extensive case law.
“The defamation law did what it was intended to do,” Fernholz said, “which was to hold people accountable for saying defamatory things.”
Walker said it’s “absolutely laughable” for news media to consider Bangstad a reliable source. “People in the media are using his information on a guy that was just found guilty of defamation,” he said.
Bangstad, who plans to open a tasting room in Madison next to Trixie’s Liquor on East Washington Avenue, was found in contempt of court during the trial and fined $250 for posting about the trial on Facebook and talking to opposing counsel and a member of the gallery. The judge also imposed a gag order.
Bangstad has also sparred with local officials over zoning concerns related to his brewery and restaurant, and his Minocqua Brewing Co. SuperPAC is funding a lawsuit aimed at having the state’s school voucher program — long a target of Democrats and their allies in public education — declared unconstitutional.
Jury finds Minocqua brewery owner, Democratic activist defamed newspaper publisher
Chris RickertOctober 31, 2023
CBS 58 Capitol Reporter Emilee Fannon and WisPolitics.com Editor JR Ross discuss Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad and his political Super PAC.
An Oneida County court has ordered Minocqua brewery owner and progressive activist Kirk Bangstad to pay a local newspaper publisher $750,000 in damages for calling the journalist names on social media and alleging he failed to come to the aid of his dying brother 36 years ago, among other claims.
Bangstad, in a post on his Minocqua Brewing Co.’s Facebook page, decried the verdict as politically motivated and unfair and said he would appeal, but he acknowledged that he went too far in repeating rumors he’d heard about Lakeland Times publisher Gregg Walker’s history with his brother.
The suit was originally filed in May 2021 and pointed to Facebook posts from Bangstad calling Walker a “crook” and a “misogynist” and alleging that his paper had called a local community leader a disparaging term for someone with a cognitive disability. It was unusual among defamation suits involving the news media in that the newspaper was suing the politician — Bangstad ran for state Assembly as a Democrat in 2020 — and not the politician suing the news media.
Walker later amended that complaint twice, most recently in January of this year to include allegations Bangstad again made on Facebook that Walker had failed to come to the aid of his brother after a hunting accident in 1987, and that he’d manipulated his ailing father for financial gain.
A jury on Friday found all of Bangstad’s statements were defamatory.
Bangstad, who also funnels part of the proceeds from his brewery to his progressive super PAC, and The Lakeland Times, a weekly newspaper with a conservative editorial position, have clashed in print and online for years.
Walker on Monday said “the whole case deals with him saying I murdered my brother,” referring to an Aug. 8, 2022, post in which Bangstad said Walker “allegedly stood by and did nothing while his brother accidentally fell from a tree stand and died — who allegedly knew he would inherit the once-legitimate Lakeland Times if his brother was out of the picture.”
In reality, Walker was miles away from his brother when he accidentally shot himself during a hunting trip and was not in a position to provide aid.
Bangstad on Monday said he “retracted” his allegation about the brother’s death after getting further information from the person who told him the story. He also said he was wrong about the paper having called the local official a slur.
Key to the outcome of his case, he said, is that the judge refused to rule that Walker is a “public figure” and thus required to meet a higher legal standard for proving Bangstad defamed him.
Under U.S. Supreme Court decisions, false statements about a public figure are defamatory if they are made with “actual malice” and “a reckless disregard for the truth.” False statements about a private figure, however, need only be negligent to be considered defamatory.
“Imagine if anybody who says something bad about somebody else on Facebook can get sued,” Bangstad said. “It opens up a huge can of worms for just money flowing through defamation.”
But Walker’s attorney, Matthew Fernholz, said the question of whether Walker — and Bangstad, who had made a counterclaim that was dismissed before trial — was a “general purpose public figure” was argued extensively prior to trial and Circuit Judge Leon Stenz made his decision on the basis of extensive case law.
“The defamation law did what it was intended to do,” Fernholz said, “which was to hold people accountable for saying defamatory things.”
Walker said it’s “absolutely laughable” for news media to consider Bangstad a reliable source. “People in the media are using his information on a guy that was just found guilty of defamation,” he said.
Bangstad, who plans to open a tasting room in Madison next to Trixie’s Liquor on East Washington Avenue, was found in contempt of court during the trial and fined $250 for posting about the trial on Facebook and talking to opposing counsel and a member of the gallery. The judge also imposed a gag order.
Bangstad has also sparred with local officials over zoning concerns related to his brewery and restaurant, and his Minocqua Brewing Co. SuperPAC is funding a lawsuit aimed at having the state’s school voucher program — long a target of Democrats and their allies in public education — declared unconstitutional.
