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To: Scoutmaster; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
RE :”She's not. She's not ‘pervasively’ in the news and public eye, so she's not a public figure under Times v. Sullivan.
The question is whether she's a limited public figure. It's true that she thrust herself into the spotlight on this issue, but was she really a public figure when she ended her presentation? How many people here knew who she was by name when she ended her presentation and before Limbaugh opened his mouth?

She was on some (at least one) MSNBC progressive opinion shows because I saw her there before Rush said any of this. I know I posted a comment here about it at the time. She was playing the 'Boo-hoo-hoo they wont let me testify act' almost weeping about her friend with nthe health problem.
That was after the Religous rights House committee rejected her, but before Pelosi’s women's health committee put her on TV/CSPAN. I watch those shows pretty regularly,

Would that be enough to count?

82 posted on 03/05/2012 1:25:35 PM PST by sickoflibs (You MUST support the lesser of two RINOs or we all die!)
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To: sickoflibs
Would that be enough to count [for her to be pervasively in the news]?

No. First, that 'pervasively' in the news standard is really, really high. If, for example, you're the attorney representing a celebrity on some murder charge and you've been appearing nightly on five talk shows for a couple of months, you're probably not a public figure. You're a limited public figure. You have to be a celebrity or politician, or a high-power businessman to be a public figure.

So the question is whether she is a limited public figure. Even then, you can't take those shows into account because you're judging it from the time that Limbaugh talked about her, not now. You can't take into about any notoriety she got because of Limbaugh's comments, or any press she got because of Limbaugh's comments, or any shows she's been on since she spoke to the Democrats.

I believe the test is . . . when Limbaugh called her a slut and claimed she said these things about her sex life, was she a limited public figure. The precise moment before Rush first mentioned her, would the American public would have recognized her face or name? If you mentioned "contraception', what percentage of the American public would have had her face or name come to mind?

88 posted on 03/05/2012 1:36:11 PM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it)
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