From a New York Times story by Jeremy W. Peters headlined “Report on Anti-Gay Slur Could Put Local News Site Out of Business”:

The county board meeting in Wausau, Wis., on Aug. 12, 2021, got contentious fast. Nobody disputes that.

But what happened about 12 minutes in, as members of the north-central Wisconsin community squabbled over a resolution intended to promote diversity and inclusion, has become the subject of a bitter legal fight that threatens to bankrupt one of the few remaining sources of local news in the area. First Amendment experts say the case highlights a troubling trend of wealthy and powerful people using defamation law as retribution.