Public figure. Pretty much they can get away with it.
“Public figure. Pretty much they can get away with it.”
I don’t think it’s that cut and dry. Even for public figures, I believe there are exemptions. Cain would have to show the women exhibited actual malice, making claims they knew not to be true.
The problem is that none of these women have the assets worth pursuing in Court. The media outlets might have a liability if they continued to publish only the women’a unsubstantiated claims when a reliable source, i.e., the Chmn of the NRA, attempted to clear the record but media chose not to publish that. Those media outlets had reason to know that the claims were not true and chose not to make that public, which imo is actual malice. (not that I’m a lawyer).