{"id":1468614,"date":"2022-05-09T08:15:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T12:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1468614"},"modified":"2022-05-09T08:17:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T12:17:13","slug":"how-the-washington-post-and-aclu-helped-amber-heard-attack-johnny-depp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-washington-post-and-aclu-helped-amber-heard-attack-johnny-depp\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Washington Post And ACLU Helped Amber Heard Attack Johnny Depp"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-the-washington-post-and-aclu-helped-amber-heard-attack-johnny-depp%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1468614&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>According to evidence presented in court, actress Amber Heard lied within the first moment she stepped onto the witness stand last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Az_KJBowdX4?t=15628\">saying<\/a>: \u201cI am here because my ex-husband is suing me for an op-ed I wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post op-ed at the heart of the defamation lawsuit from actor Johnny Depp carried the byline, \u201cBy Amber Heard,\u201d and Heard should be held responsible for putting her name on its contents, but the op-ed was anything but written by Heard.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, in a disturbing breach of journalistic and nonprofit ethics, testimony in the tragic trial of Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard reveals Depp should put two other defendants on trial: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the <em>Washington Post<\/em>. The two organizations raise millions of dollars on brand reputations that hinge on values of transparency, honesty, and ethics that they violated in writing and publishing the allegedly defamatory op-ed.<\/p>\n<p>In a carefully orchestrated operation, extensive documentation of which I\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/asrainvestigates.substack.com\/p\/15f1500d-491f-4794-84db-5716a962cc8f\">detailed on Substack<\/a>, we now know from testimony and email evidence that the communications, \u201cdevelopment,\u201d \u201cartist engagement,\u201d and legal teams of the ACLU crafted, wrote, lawyered, and placed the salacious 765-word <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/ive-seen-how-institutions-protect-men-accused-of-abuse-heres-what-we-can-do\/2018\/12\/18\/71fd876a-02ed-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?noredirect=on\">Washington Post \u201cop-ed<\/a>\u201d that implied Depp was a wife-beater with a 26-word assertion: \u201ctwo years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture\u2019s wrath for women who speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ACLU was a co-conspirator with Ms. Heard,\u201d Depp\u2019s attorney, Ben Chew, said during his arguments on Tuesday. \u201cOf course, Mr. Depp chose not to sue them,\u201d responded Heard\u2019s lawyer, Benjamin Rottenborn. Heard\u2019s and Depp\u2019s PR firms didn\u2019t comment further. The ACLU and Washington Post didn\u2019t return several requests for comment.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Amber\u2019s Ad\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Two slips-of-the-tongue during the recorded deposition of ACLU Chief Operating Officer Terence Dougherty <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/m7uYBqaYLO4\">shared in court last week<\/a> reveal exactly how the ACLU and the <em>Washington Post<\/em> were complicit in a hit job against Depp. <\/p>\n<p>In the first Freudian slip, 14:30:51 into his deposition, Dougherty explained that emails in Exhibit 41 documented ACLU staffers from its fundraising \u201cdevelopment\u201d department discussing \u201cthe placement of Amber\u2019s ad\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He quickly tried to correct himself: \u201cNot ad. Sorry. I mean op-ed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No, he said it: \u201cthe placement of Amber\u2019s ad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what the \u201cop-ed\u201d was: \u201cearned media,\u201d as they call it in the media industry, for the ACLU, Heard, and the release of the Warner Bros. film, \u201cAquaman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, in the second slip, at 14:40:35 in his deposition, Dougherty explained how Stacy Sullivan, deputy director of editorial and strategic communications at the ACLU from September 2014 through October 2019, according to her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/stacy-sullivan-8692a2b\/\">LinkedIn account<\/a>, emailed Michael Larabee, the Post\u2019s op-ed editor and top boss in the opinions section, then Larabee\u2019s colleagues Michael Duffy and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/pr\/wp\/2018\/05\/29\/mark-lasswell-joins-the-posts-opinions-section\/\">Mark Lasswell<\/a> when she got an automatic out-of-office reply from Larabee.<\/p>\n<p>In the second slip, Dougherty said about Sullivan: \u201cShe reached out to him first about placing the ad\u201d from Heard. This time, he didn\u2019t even correct himself.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Phase 1: Building Credibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Everyone involved in this situation used Depp\u2019s cachet for private gain. The ACLU used Heard\u2019s relationship with Depp to win \u201cearned media,\u201d which is much more lucrative and trustworthy than a paid advertisement. The Washington Post sold newspapers and got clicks. The ACLU got a donation. Heard earned status as a women\u2019s rights activist.<\/p>\n<p>In my 35 years of professional journalism, the last 20 of them writing op-eds, I have never before witnessed a more explicit example of deception. Some years ago, I taught a course on writing the reported op-ed at Georgetown University, and if any of my students had tried to pull off what Heard and the ACLU did, I would have had to fail them for the serious ethical violation of passing off somebody\u2019s work as their own.<\/p>\n<p>Publishing an op-ed that someone else has written for you is no different than going online and buying a term paper. I get it, not everyone is a writer. We all benefit from editors. I\u2019ve used editors and wordsmiths to help me with drafts, but as authors we have an ethical duty to be the ones to first put words down in writing.<\/p>\n<p>But, in the fall of 2018, Heard\u2019s op-ed was the brainchild of communications staffers at the ACLU. The ACLU had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/blog\/womens-rights\/violence-against-women\/actress-amber-heard-donates-millions-support-aclu-and-its\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published a blog post<\/a> in August 2016, following Heard\u2019s divorce from Depp, with this positive headline:\u00a0 \u201cActress Amber Heard Donates Millions to Support the ACLU and Its Work Fighting Violence Against Women.\u201d The page featured a banner image, \u201cSpeak Freely.\u201d The tags on the post were \u201cViolence Against Women\u201d and \u201cWomen\u2019s Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the hallmarks of a pay-to-play operation, Heard had donated $350,000 to the ACLU in August 2016, pledging $3.5 million. Of that, Dougherty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/lifestyle\/aclu-says-amber-heard-paid-045257583.html\">testified<\/a> he believes only $1.3 million was paid, with Depp paying $100,000 and billionaire Elon Musk, who dated Heard after her divorce, attributed to a June 2017 payment of $500,000 and a December 2018 payment of $350,000.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Phase 2: The Proposal<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail4thfrombottom-1024x1024-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272156\" width=\"728\" height=\"728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail4thfrombottom-1024x1024-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail4thfrombottom-300x300-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail4thfrombottom-200x200-1.png 200w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail4thfrombottom-768x768-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail4thfrombottom.png 1080w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>On Nov. 6, 2018, at 2:22 p.m., Gerry Johnson, who according to his LinkedIn was then an ACLU staffer in communications strategy, sent an email to Heard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/movies\/johnny-depp-and-amber-heard-reveal-witness-and-exhibit-list\/\">publicist<\/a> at the time, Jodi Gottlieb. It said, \u201cI\u2019d like your and Amber\u2019s thoughts on doing an op-ed in which she discusses the ways in which survivors of gender-based violence have been made less safe under the Trump administration and how people can take action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Johnson even framed the piece as depicting Heard as a \u201cgender-based violence,\u201d or GBV, survivor, writing: \u201cIf she feels comfortable, she can interweave her personal story, saying how painful it is as a GBV survivor to witness these setbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After her colleague, Johnson, planted this idea, Robin Schulman, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizpacreview.com\/2022\/04\/29\/aclu-admits-in-testimony-that-it-wrote-amber-heards-op-ed-against-johnny-depp-timed-release-with-aquaman-1231754\/\">communications strategist<\/a> at the ACLU, took on the task of writing the \u201cfirst draft\u201d of the op-ed, according to Dougherty\u2019s testimony and ACLU emails used as exhibits in court.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over the next 23 days, through Nov. 29, 2018, the ACLU\u2019s communications, legal, and development teams went back and forth with Heard\u2019s PR team and lawyers on the details that would be shared about her relationship with Depp in the op-ed.<\/p>\n<p>That day, Nov. 29, 2018, at 1:12 p.m., Jessica Weitz, director of artist engagement at the ACLU, sent an email to Heard, identified as \u201cA H,\u201d with an attachment, marked as the eighth version of the op-ed, and the subject line, \u201camber op-ed viii.docx.\u201d She noted the op-ed had to \u201cpass through quite a few lawyer\u2019s [sic] first.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail3rdfrombottom-1024x1024-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272155\" width=\"747\" height=\"747\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail3rdfrombottom-1024x1024-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail3rdfrombottom-300x300-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail3rdfrombottom-200x200-1.png 200w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail3rdfrombottom-768x768-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail3rdfrombottom.png 1080w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Two hours later, at 3:20 p.m., Schulman sent a new draft of the op-ed to Weitz to forward to Heard with the note: \u201cI tried to gather your fire and rage and really interesting analysis and shape that into op-ed form.\u201d Incredibly, in this game of deception, she said, \u201cI hope it sounds true to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cYour lawyers should review this for the way I skirted around talking about your marriage.\u201d Again, Heard did <em>not<\/em> even write her own draft.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail2ndfrombottom-1024x1024-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272154\" width=\"-63\" height=\"-63\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail2ndfrombottom-1024x1024-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail2ndfrombottom-300x300-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail2ndfrombottom-200x200-1.png 200w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail2ndfrombottom-768x768-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amberheardmeail2ndfrombottom.png 1080w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>Phase 4: Placing the Hit<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>From the office of communications strategy at the ACLU, Johnson offered some media outlets to pitch the piece: the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, and Teen Vogue, which has become a go-to for hard-left content.<\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 11, 2018, another 12 days after the first draft was shared and just more than one month since the ACLU first planted the idea of an op-ed, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/m7uYBqaYLO4?t=1377\">according to a reading of the email<\/a> in court, it was Weitz who pitched the timing of the op-ed\u2019s placement. In an email, Weitz wrote to the ACLU team: \u201cThe goal is to get this out this week to capitalize on the tremendous campaign for Aquaman.\u201d (The emails haven\u2019t been filed yet as court records, but are read on the deposition videos.)<\/p>\n<p>According to court testimony, Weitz also said in an email that Heard wanted to get her temporary restraining order into the op-ed. \u201cIs there an artful way to do that?\u201d Weitz asked.<\/p>\n<p>It was left to the ACLU\u2019s Sullivan to pitch the op-ed. According <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/m7uYBqaYLO4?t=1751\">to Dougherty\u2019s deposition<\/a>, she emailed the pitch to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/pr\/wp\/2014\/05\/07\/michael-larabee-named-oped-editor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Larabee<\/a> and others at the Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>Starting off with casual familiarity, she punctuated her pitch with a juicy parenthetical phrase: \u201cHey Michael, wondering if we might interest you in a piece by Amber Heard (who as you may recall, was beaten up during her brief marriage to Johnny Depp), on what the incoming Congress can do to help protect women in similar situations.\u201d She just slipped in that serious allegation about Depp.<\/p>\n<p>When Sullivan got an out-of-office reply, she forwarded the pitch to Duffy and Lasswell at the Post. After the Post accepted the op-ed, according to court testimony Weitz celebrated, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/m7uYBqaYLO4?t=1577\">writing in an email<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s going to the Washington Post!!!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then on Dec. 17, 2018, in an email with the subject line, \u201cRe: Language \u2013 TIME SENSITIVE,\u201d the ACLU\u2019s Shulman continued to massage the op-ed with Heard\u2019s attorney, Eric George. \u201cA H\u201d was just on the \u201cCC\u201d line, copied in the messages.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lastamberheardmeail-1024x1024-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272153\" width=\"710\" height=\"710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lastamberheardmeail-1024x1024-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lastamberheardmeail-300x300-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lastamberheardmeail-200x200-1.png 200w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lastamberheardmeail-768x768-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lastamberheardmeail.png 1080w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>Phase 5: The Hit<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The next day, Dec. 18, 2018, the Washington Post published an op-ed in its \u201cOpinions\u201d section with the headline: \u201cAmber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence \u2013 and faced our culture\u2019s wrath. That has to change.\u201d It included the words crafted artfully and deliberately by the team at the ACLU: \u201cI became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture\u2019s wrath for women who speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Larabee, Duffy, and Lasswell should have all known better. Getting a pitch from the deputy director of editorial and strategic communications at the ACLU is a huge red flag that they wrote the piece. Did the Washington Post editors even ask?<\/p>\n<p>It was reckless, irresponsible, and defamatory to imply without a conviction that Depp had been a domestic violence abuser. That\u2019s journalism 101. And Heard, the ACLU, and the Washington Post are responsible for the headline that ran, alleging \u201csexual violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No matter the verdict of the case, they need to fix their misconduct. To right their wrongs, they should do three things: apologize to Depp for publishing the fake \u201cop-ed\u201d that wasn\u2019t even written by Heard, retract the \u201cop-ed,\u201d and donate to charities that <em>actually <\/em>fight domestic violence.<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, the UK\u2019s Guardian published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/cifamerica\/2011\/aug\/24\/oped-ghostwriter-deception\">an op-ed<\/a> headlined, \u201cThe ghostwritten op-ed: an unacceptable deception.\u201d Author Dan Gillmor asked: \u201cIf I\u2019d fail a journalism student for a paper written by another, why does the media give a pass to the rich and powerful?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s that same breach of trust the ACLU and Washington Post are silent about today. We don\u2019t need closing arguments in the case against Heard to issue a verdict on the unethical breach of the public trust by these two institutions of power. Guilty.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Asra Nomani is a senior contributor at The Federalist. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, Nomani writes a regular newsletter, <a href=\"https:\/\/asrainvestigates.substack.com\/\">Asra Investigates<\/a>, with breaking news and analysis on the frontlines of culture and politics. She is cofounder of the Coalition for TJ, a grassroots parent group, and the Pearl Project, an investigative reporting initiative.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to evidence presented in court, actress Amber Heard lied within the first moment she stepped onto the witness stand last week, saying: \u201cI am here because my ex-husband is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":723,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/723"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}