Politics
The Belmont Voice alleges longshot U.S. Senate candidate Shiva Ayyadurai sued after the newspaper “did not yield to his demands for more extensive coverage.”
Back on the ballot and running for U.S. Senate, perennial candidate Shiva Ayyadurai has taken an unorthodox approach to seeking campaign coverage in the run-up to Election Day: Suing his hometown newspaper.
The Belmont resident filed a federal lawsuit against The Belmont Voice Wednesday, accusing the nonprofit newsroom of refusing to cover his campaign the way it did incumbent Democratic Sen. Ed Markey and Republican challenger John Deaton.
“As a tax-exempt non-profit, they are barred by federal law from intervening in elections — yet they deliberately blacked out our federal candidacy while promoting our opponents,” Ayyadurai alleged on social media.
The Belmont Voice board of directors responded with a public statement Thursday, saying Ayyadurai’s complaint is “a baseless, frivolous lawsuit that we expect will be resolved quickly.”
But the legal battle is also an “unpleasant” and “costly distraction” for a nonprofit with a small staff and volunteer board, the statement continued.
What Ayyadurai’s lawsuit claims
According to his lawsuit, Ayyadurai contacted Belmont Voice leadership in late August to inquire about election coverage and was assured the newspaper’s reporting would “expand to include other candidates” following the September primary. But after the Voice published a Sept. 25 profile of Deaton, Ayyadurai followed up with repeated demands that he be interviewed as well.
The newspaper’s board chair told Ayyadurai the editorial team was “planning further coverage of this race and does plan to include your campaign in that coverage” — a response Ayyadurai said he viewed as “constructive candidate exclusion.” In an email to the chair days later, he alleged that the Voice was racist and “must be punished” for purportedly violating his civil rights and covering his campaign unfairly, according to the lawsuit.
While the Voice ultimately emailed Ayyadurai interview questions on Oct. 14, he claims the newspaper demonstrated “a consistent pattern of discriminatory disrespect, racial gatekeeping, and bad-faith minimization toward a Brown-skinned Indian immigrant candidate” by referring to him as “Mr. Ayyadurai” rather than “doctor.” (Ayyadurai, the self-described “inventor of email,” holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)
Ayyadurai also took issue with one interview question that mischaracterized his campaign as a race for “state senate,” rather than the U.S. Senate. He is representing himself in his lawsuit, which seeks an unedited candidate feature, prominent placement of his campaign media on the Voice’s homepage, and a “dedicated subscriber email blast” containing his platform, as well as damages. Also named in the complaint are editor in chief Jesse Floyd and board chair Sarah Caputo.
For its part, the Voice pointed out that the latest poll from Suffolk University and The Boston Globe had Ayyadurai trailing Markey and Deaton with just 1% support. As such, the newspaper said it planned to include Ayyadurai in a story about independent candidates running in the general election.
The Voice said Ayyadurai opted to sue when it “did not yield to his demands for more extensive coverage.”
It’s not Ayyadurai’s first lawsuit; he previously sued news outlets that cast doubt on his claim that he invented email and took the City of Cambridge to court for demanding he remove a sign disparaging his opponent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, during his 2018 Senate run. Ayyadurai also faces a potential legal challenge of his own after Secretary of State Bill Galvin — himself a frequent target of Ayyadurai’s lawsuits — last month referred signature fraud allegations to state prosecutors.
What’s next?
A hearing in the Belmont case is scheduled for Monday morning. In the meantime, the Voice has seen an outpouring of online support from community members, including Select Board Chair Taylor Yates.
“Politicians don’t get to tell media outlets what to say and not say,” Yates explained in a Facebook video encouraging donations to the nonprofit newsroom.
The Belmont Voice leadership likewise said they plan to “vigorously defend ourselves and our independence as a news organization.”
“Our country was built on the foundation of a free press. The Belmont Voice is proud to be part of that tradition,” the newspaper’s board said, adding, “We will not be intimidated by outside pressure.”
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