South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Slapped With Lawsuit Over Bizarre Video Promoting Texas Dentist

[brucejoel99]

People can think what they want about the video, but what should really bother people about the way things work in America today is that a group would file a lawsuit against her first before knowing if she did receive compensation for the video.

Mediaite reached out to Lauren Wolfe, the attorney for Travelers United who filed the lawsuit. Wolfe acknowledged that she did not as of yet have the direct evidence that Noem had been paid or received free or reduced dental services in exchange for the social media posts, but there did not seem to be any other logical explanation.

We're such a litigious society now where people invoke lawyers and ask for "damages" before, you know, talking to someone first.

So discovery?

Maybe she did receive free or reduced services, maybe she did receive money, but maybe she didn't. Find out first before you file a lawsuit. Kristi Noem is pretty open to everyone and she would probably tell you why she did it if you asked her.

You think her & her office haven't been asked? They've been declining comment.

If this group of consumers was resultantly aghast by that enough to invoke their rights to trigger discovery & make her answer, then that's a consequence of that being their right under their consumer-protection-in-advertising law. If she didn't wanna be sued, maybe don't star in/post an ad for a service she received & thereby tread a fine line of ad-disclosure law?

[Ferguson97]

Her next speech is going to start with “This speech is sponsored by HelloFresh…”

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

And for the record unless I'm missing something, I don't see how this is a big deal. The dentist is not in her state and she has no authority over this business, and any restriction on her making any such endorsements at all seems like it would run afoul of McDonnell v. United States (yep that involves former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and why his conviction was unanimously annulled.)

This is a rather weird thing for a sitting Governor to be doing, but unless there's some notable bit I'm missing I'm not seeing how it could be a crime.

[brucejoel99]

And for the record unless I'm missing something, I don't see how this is a big deal. The dentist is not in her state and she has no authority over this business, and any restriction on her making any such endorsements at all seems like it would run afoul of McDonnell v. United States (yep that involves former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and why his conviction was unanimously annulled.)

This is a rather weird thing for a sitting Governor to be doing, but unless there's some notable bit I'm missing I'm not seeing how it could be a crime.

FTC regulations that apply nationwide, in addition to numerous consumer protection regulations under various state & DC laws, have made it extremely clear that influencers need to disclose when posts on their social media are sponsored content. Nobody is claiming that a crime occurred here; her actions, at worst, carry civil implications. There'll ultimately be no problem if she was genuinely just a happy customer, but it's really sus that she's refusing to confirm or deny on-the-record the simple matter of whether or not she was paid or her services discounted in exchange for her ad appearance, & made all the more sus when the doctor's office in question responds with attempts to argue with a straight face that they can't confirm her payment/discount/customer status because that'd be a HIPAA violation.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

And for the record unless I'm missing something, I don't see how this is a big deal. The dentist is not in her state and she has no authority over this business, and any restriction on her making any such endorsements at all seems like it would run afoul of McDonnell v. United States (yep that involves former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and why his conviction was unanimously annulled.)

This is a rather weird thing for a sitting Governor to be doing, but unless there's some notable bit I'm missing I'm not seeing how it could be a crime.

FTC regulations that apply nationwide, in addition to numerous consumer protection regulations under various state & DC laws, have made it extremely clear that influencers need to disclose when posts on their social media are sponsored content. Nobody is claiming that a crime occurred here; her actions, at worst, carry civil implications. There'll ultimately be no problem if she was genuinely just a happy customer, but it's really sus that she's refusing to confirm or deny on-the-record the simple matter of whether or not she was paid or her services discounted in exchange for her ad appearance, & made all the more sus when the doctor's office in question responds with attempts to argue with a straight face that they can't confirm her payment/discount/customer status because that'd be a HIPAA violation.

OK that makes more sense.

Although that's still fairly minor so it's tough to see why a guy facing 88 felony counts would care.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Her next speech is going to start with “This speech is sponsored by HelloFresh…”

Since it's South Dakota, NordVPN might be more appropriate.