By Andrew Chung

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a bid by a prominent former West Virginia mining company executive to make it easier for public figures to sue for defamation in a case that challenged longstanding and powerful protections for news organizations.

The justices turned away former Massey Energy CEO Donald Blankenship's appeal of a lower court's decision throwing out his defamation lawsuit against media outlets including Fox News and MSNBC for characterizing him as a "felon" during his unsuccessful 2018 run for the U.S. Senate.

Blankenship was convicted by a jury in 2015 of a federal conspiracy offense that is classified as a misdemeanor, not a felony, after a 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 coal miners.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)