It was not the case that the framers of the Constitution were at all opposed to any part of the Bill of Rights, rather the absence of any bill of rights in the unamended Constitution reflected fear that no bill of rights existed or could be composed which would not risk denigrating some right or another, and the whole thing would be a controversial mess. And controversy was the very thing that the Framers wanted to avoid. The Federalists also feared that a listing of rights would be treated not as a floor under our rights but - as certainly can said to have historically been the case - a ceiling over them.
SCOTUS did not legitimately have the right to take away the right of an aggrieved to sue for libel. The impact of Sullivan, I would argue, has been growing all my life. Politics was at least somewhat civil when there could be consequences for bold-faced lying - which is what we have seen Democrats engage in. Republicans have done much less of that for the simple reason that Democrats have had the “air cover” of the MSM - something which was not considered in the Sullivan decision.
When the 1st Amendment was written……duels were still legal.
good
Exactly correct. It is precisely from the time of the Sullivan decision that the United States became a Mediacracy, where the Media, dominated by the Progressive ideology, became far more powerful than the political parties.
The Progressive ideology favored the Democrats, but most Republicans were Progressives as well.
The ideological domination of Progressives in the Media can be traced back to the FCC and the dominance in the Media from the radio networks which became the television networks.