Posted on 01/12/2017 10:45:47 AM PST by ColdOne
While BuzzFeed weathers criticism for publishing a document cache containing unsubstantiated and scandalous allegations about President-elect Donald Trump and his confidantes, they also could face legal consequences.
The organization elected to publish a 35-page dossier claiming Russian operatives had compromising personal and financial information about the president-elect and others in his orbit. The documents were compiled by a former British intelligence officer working for a private intelligence firm in London at the behest of Trump’s political opponents. They were later shared with Democratic political operatives and members of Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Soon to be "Trumpfeed"
Right, there is leeway for a public figure but there’s only so far you can go. However, a liberal judge would go with his feelings rather than the law so it’s still a roll of the dice.
This is a good thing. Media should not pass on slander or participate in smear campaigns because of different political views of their organizations. Journalism must have ethical standards that they should be required by law to meet!
This reminds me of Hulk Hogan and gawker.....didn’t turn out to well for the so called info. outlet.
Good! He ought to sue them like hulk hogan did to that gossip site.
Donald and associations may be more “slow to anger” about this as administration of the USA, than when he was as a private citizen.
However, he can’t just ignore this. I expect some very pregnant warnings to issue from the Trump White House. It’s up to his foes whether they want those warnings to bear their children of wrath, so to speak. This is one very elective abortion, so to speak.
Let’s hope they go the way of Gawker.
"Though the prospect of a sitting president bringing a civil suit against a media organization seems far-fetched, Trump aides outside the administration who are implicated in the documents could move forward with their own actions. Michael Cohen, counsel for the Trump Organization and an individual named in the documents, is a likely candidate in this regard."Excerpted from The Daily Caller's "BuzzFeed Could Be In Legal Trouble For Publishing Trump Doc."
If found guilty, Buzzfeed should not only pay huge compensatory damages, but the punitive damages should be astronomical.
He predicted that BuzzFeed would suffer the same fate as did Gawker, and made the case that Gawker was put out of business after committing an offense less severe than that committed by BuzzFeed, in which NBC/Comcast invested around $400 million.
He (Lionel) also pointed out that the "editor in chief" of BuzzFeed, a man named Ben Smith, has repeatedly admitted his culpability in public statements made since they broke the "story," something that no journalist with any sense would ever do.
He repeatedly mentioned NY Times v. Sullivan, the court case which established the "actual malice" standard, as well as Nick Denton, the publisher of Gawker, who got nailed (figuratively) by Hulk Hogan.
Could be? COULD be????
I’d sell your Buzzfeed stock right away.
Hulk Hogan was financed by Peter Thiel, who supports Trump.
They don’t care. It convinced a few thousand people to hate Trump, and that’s all that matters to them.
This could be the end of BuzzFeed. It appears that web sites about to run into libel, slander and defamation of character laws....
Buzzfeed case will take CNN, Wilson, McMullin, McCain, etc down with it.
Can they use Gwker case as precedent?
Hope so.
I heard on one talk radio program that BuzzFeed was started by a former Huffington Post person and that it was recently acquired by NBCUniversal.
The interconnections of the whole fake story requires a flow chart to explain all of the various involvements.
I don't know, maybe.
Here's the Lionel video I referenced. You can listen to it to get some gory details. Lionel is an attorney, very smart, although he sometimes goes off the deep end and is something of a conspiracy theorist (he believes 9-11 was an inside job).
FWIW, he says there is a clear "cause for action" in this case, and that the publisher of BuzzFeed "published his own career suicide note" by going with this story.
Mcslime is both a dem political operative and democrat.
UK laws are strict on defamation. Cohen should go after Steele and his company.
Buzzfeed is about to hit the Trump buzz saw...!
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