Posted on 02/27/2016 10:02:24 AM PST by dschapin
Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to change libel laws in the United States so that he can have an easier time suing news organizations.
During a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, Trump began his usual tirade against newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, saying they're "losing money" and are "dishonest." The Republican presidential candidate then took a different turn, suggesting that when he's president they'll "have problems."
"One of the things I'm going to do if I win, and I hope we do and we're certainly leading. I'm going to 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. We're going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected," Trump said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/donald-trump-libel-laws-219866#ixzz41OOQy1Ch
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
We defame public officials all the time on here. I would not support any law that restricts my right to call the president, or any senator or congressman an SOB.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed and then repealed. I think you meant repealed, not rejected.
From what I've read here from Trumpers, I'm not surprised they'd support this.
But, in times of national angst, sadly, people are willing to give up freedoms to the first strongman that whispers sweetly into their ears.
They're too committed to Trump at this point to let anything stop that now. That's why they will dismiss his leftist tendencies that are starting to come out more and more as it becomes clear he will be the GOP nominee
There’s a fine line between propaganda and free speech, notice that libel is slander and untrue. Potentially damaging to someone as the MSM drags countless victims through the mud ruining reputations and lives.
If you’re someone like Zimmerman, then free speech starts to take on a different meaning.
It’s a lot different than sharing opinions or beliefs and being able to freely engage in public discussion.
You can’t sequester electrons. It ain’t happening. Freedom of speech will prevail unless you implement firing squads. And even then, Samizdat and other news outlets still operated. Oh, and any change in libel laws will sooner be used to make publication of Biblical passages illegal than to make criticism of politicians illegal.
Yeah, saw how such laws were used in Canada to silence conservatives.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3116989/posts
“Conservative website shuttered after libel ruling [Free Dominion]”
http://freerepublic.com/tag/freedominion/index?tab=articles
Indeed. But such laws won’t backfire on them because....Trump.
Even if he were to get the GOP nomination and go on to become president, what would give him the authority to change the laws?
Trump sounds like Obama.
The MSM has ruined lives with their lies, slander, and propaganda.
It’s all “free speech” until the MSM crucifies someone like Zimmerman. I wonder how his life has been effected by the MSM slanderers.
That’s Libel. That’s not free speech. It’s opinion making in the court of public opinion to maliciously take down anyone that thinks opposite of you, with no regard to whom they run over cripple and ruin. In fact it’s suppression of free speech and a bending of political and social discussion to one way of thinking. The left way of thinking.
Oh good grief, this has nothing to do with the first amendment.
There are remedies against anyone who abuses a right and causes harm against another person whether it be imprisonment or civil actions in the cases of libel or slander.
Put you knee back in it's socket and think please.
There needs to be middle-ground (corporations can’t engage in lies without the risk of being sued). The USA is being destroyed by a leftist press who if they get their way, the First Amendment will become meaningless anyway, in effect very soon under a President Clinton.
Sorry simpleskin, the 1st does not protect libel or slander....you lose.
Yes, they were law and they were repealed. However, they have been completely rejected as one of the darkest mistakes of the early years of our country and once Judicial Review was established the Courts have made it clear that they would now be held unconstitutional.
“Free Dominion” the only two words any conservative really needs to know in relation to why making libel laws euro/Canada style is a terrible idea.
Agreed. The MSM has ruined many lives with their lies.
Intentional lies to mislead and sway public opinion to push ONE agenda. One speech. One global way of thinking. One opinion at a time. They have suppressed and tried bending free thought into one type of mind, the leftist mind.
A lot of what the media does is of course free speech. But when you are blatantly lying and intentionally ruining lives that is not free speech.
There was a man in 1930 who had much the same agenda, Castro did as well, Obama tried just has not completed his assigned task.
These people have wailed at all kinds of Obama overreaches and Executive Orders, but see nothing wrong in Trumps AGENDA and/or worse.
Obama said everything he was going to do to America before he was elected, at least on that part he was truthful.
Opinion should stay opinion. If the paper calls itself an opinion paper, then I’m not worried about lies. You expect people to completely taint opinion because opinion is tainted understanding from what others believe.
If the paper calls itself a newspaper, yet pumps out lies as truth in news articles, that is wrong. “Analysis” is something that can blur the two, but if stated as such, provides the right context.
It’s like putting the word “satire” on your article—it tells people that what is said has a certain context, as well.
If some expert is quoted in a newspaper as stating Trump had someone killed, would you expect that either that person, or that paper, should be able to be sued?
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