[ptsal]

What part of the criminal code covers lying to MSNBC?

Really lies, misinformation, and slick spin are the foundation of the network’s business plan.

Lying to congress only matters if you are a support of #45. Ask Roger Stone.

[Enterprise]

"What part of the criminal code covers lying to MSNBC?"

I wrote nothing to indicate that such was the case.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

What part of the criminal code covers lying to MSNBC?

You’d never know it reading the Warren Court’s destructive New York Times Co. v. Sullivan decision, but there is one.

Slander is actually illegal. And so is libel. And, pace Sullivan,

". . . libel can claim no talismanic immunity from constitutional limitations. It must be measured by standards that satisfy the First Amendment”

the First Amendment does not touch slander and libel law.

The claim in Sullivan that it does is a fraud because everyone had a right to their earned reputation, before and after the First Amendment. The Federalists weren’t breaking any new ground when compiling the Bill of Rights, they were - under pressure from the Antifederalists - preventing anyone’s rights from changing. They promised a bill of rights by amendment in order to get ratification of the Constitution, and they needed to deliver. So the First Amendment is not about changing the rights to sue for libel or slander. At all.