Posted on 02/26/2016 8:32:16 PM PST by reaganaut1
At a rally in Fort Worth, Texas today, Donald Trump unloaded on Amazon.com founder and owner of the Washington Post Jeff Bezos.
"I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought the Washington Post to have political influence. And I gotta tell you, we have a different country than we used to have. We have a different... He owns Amazon. He wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That's not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh do they have problems. They're gonna have such problems," said Trump.
Trump went on to promise that, if he becomes president, he will "open up our libel laws, so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money."
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
BTW, I haven't heard a SINGLE person ask Trump if he plans to use his authority as President of the United States to push laws that will PERSONALLY benefit his companies so he can get even richer. Have you?
Absolutely not!
If you need a safe place, you're inn the wrong forum.
If these new libel laws were to take effect, Free Republic would be sued out of existence on day one.
If these laws took effect the only media we would have would be rich corporate liberal media.
New York Times, Washington Post etc...
This could be called the mainstream media only law.
ABOUT TIME the media gets held ACCOUNTABLE.
They have OPENLY STATED that they are worth 10 points to any Democrat that they support. I cannot imagine how ANYONE on our side can defend them.
Trump's line from Saturday night where he talked about judges "signing bills" seems to indicate that Donald Trump doesn't even know what the Supreme Court does. So I have no reason to be optimistic about anything regarding Trump's judicial philosophy.
I don’t have a problem with Trump, but there are folks here who will likely spray paint TrumpTrumpTrump on Mt. Rushmore.
THIS !!!!
Trump scares the hell out of me if he believes his proposed law is a good idea.
Dugout Don isn’t worthy to shine Patton’s shoes, except maybe in your mind.
I’m cool with Trump and he may even be a decent president, but he’s no Patton and he likely will sorely disappoint you at some point. Of that I am sure.
I want to remind you that Obama ,Reid and Pelosi broke some things - Our health care system - for what they considered the good of the country.
This proposed law change by Trump would silence FreeRepublic instantly, and voices like yours , faster than you can say " This was a terrible idea"
What Trump is talking about here is the higher burden placed on defamation suits when related to “public” officials and figures.
Clearly room for improvement in that arena.
You’re an ignorant fool. So sue me.
Opinion, protest, parody, and ridicule are protected under the First Amendment.
Not the same thing as libel, which is information presented as FACT, when the publisher KNEW the information to be false but published it anyway, and it was published with malice (intent to harm.)
When we forfeit the right to insult public figures and express contrarian viewpoints, America is lost.
You need to pace yourself or your constant outrage is going to give you a stroke. LOL!
You said...
“I cannot imagine how ANYONE on our side can defend them.”
We’re not.
We’re defending the Constitution. Imagine the outcry here if Hillary said the same thing but substitute NYT with Free Republic. The danger is the media may be made to fear even printing something about a politician that’s true because even the threat to be sued can instill fear. How many times have you heard a politician claim something that was said about them was was a lie only to find out later it was the truth?
My God. It appears more and more some want a dictator as long as that dictator is Trump.
You said...
“Trump scares the hell out of me if he believes his proposed law is a good idea.”
What scares me more is the number of “conservatives” who want an authoritarian type of government and never question anything Trump says no matter how outrageous. They’re blind. They let their hatred of the media cloud any reasoning. They have expressed no appreciation for the separation of Powers or the Constitution as long as Trump is running roughshod over both. What they don’t seem to realize is, should he get elect and get his way, he isn’t going to be there forever and will they feel the same way when a Democrat president continues the Trump way.
They don’t seem to realize that we are losing freedoms and once lost, you don’t get them back.
I believe, should he win, there’s going to be alot of buyer’s remorse
First they came for the Washington Post ...
nope; can't do it.
“Imagine the outcry here if Hillary said the same thing but substitute NYT with Free Republic.”
You’ve been here a while - THAT IS THEIR PLAN - and no, we are not happy about it.
Given where the media is taking us, that will be the end result anyway - FR and Rush being SILENCED, the left running a state-controlled media. A few more FCC appointments and they get there ANYHOW.
So I prefer Trump PUTTING THEM ON NOTICE that they will be HELD ACCOUNTABLE NOW, while we still have a chance to stop this - rather than letting them finish their takeover.
You said...
“Trump wants to make it dangerous to criticize him. I’m not looking for a dictator.”
Sadly, too many here are.
A while back around 2011, I caught a religious show on the radio while going Ruffed Grouse hunting and they were talking about our debt, our economic situation, declining standard of living and what Christians should do. I remember the guest predicting that if those trends continued, someone would come on the scene who was charismatic and was good at using the media. He also warned that people would follow that person unquestionably and may freely give up freedoms to that individual for the promise of making things “better.”
He may have foreseen Trump. I know it’s good to see the NYT and Washington Post get stuck for their abusively bias reporting,but you have to look beyond the glee and think of what Trump wants to and it’s ramifications for future reporting. Remember, Trump considers everything he reads or hears about him that he doesn’t like a lie
You said...
“So I prefer Trump PUTTING THEM ON NOTICE that they will be HELD ACCOUNTABLE NOW, while we still have a chance to stop this - rather than letting them finish their takeover.”
It’s heartbreaking to see so many conservatives pray for more government, more laws, and an authoritarian type government:(
And no. What Trump is doing here is threatening any media that prints and says things about him he doesn’t like nor wants to get out in his rise to power. If Obama did that you’d be gnashing your teeth and calling for his impeachment. Trump does it and it’s good. The MSM is already soiling itself with the public. The public is seeing them as more and more part of the elite. The market is taking care of it. We don’t need more government
I guess we see things differently. As far as I’m concerned, we already have the state-run media that you dread. For a short time Fox was with us, but they’re now compromised.
As far as talk radio is concerned, if the state-run media gets their way, in one or two more elections, we’ll have the Fairness Doctrine again pushed through Congress, driving Rush off the air, FOR GOOD, and talk radio around the country will again center on the price of pork bellies. At that point Amnesty slides through and it’s over for our children (even if they’re not born yet).
There’s a guy on this site that won’t vote for any Republican that allows an abortion exception for rape or incest. He’d rather see a Democrat open abortion clinics in every high school, as long as he has nothing to do with it.
Same here - we’ve already lost the mainstream media, that’s a given. The next step for the MSM is to get the Democrats enough power so that they can FINISH THE JOB.
As far as Trump not holding to an idealistic view of the First Amendment...we didn’t have that during WW2 and we survived. We’ll survive again.
You said...
“I guess we see things differently.”
We certainly do
I just prefer a limited government. I didn’t like BHO running roughshod over the Constitution and I certainly don’t like the idea of a President Trump doing the same
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