Posted on 02/28/2020 10:24:27 AM PST by Kaslin
There’s finally a chance that The New York Times will be held accountable for lying to the American people.
The Trump campaign just filed a lawsuit against the Times for a 2019 article that falsely claimed the campaign had “an overarching deal” with “Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy” to “help the campaign against Hillary Clinton” in exchange for “a new pro-Russian foreign policy, starting with relief from the Obama administration’s burdensome economic sanctions.”
The Times peddled a wild, baseless conspiracy theory, yet the author, who spent nearly a decade as the Times’s executive editor, simply presented his politically-motivated assumptions as unassailable fact. It was a classic example of the “collusion delusion” that gripped the political left throughout the first two-and-a-half years of the Trump administration.
The newspaper’s editors had to have known that the shocking allegation was false — not to mention defamatory — but they published the article anyway because they couldn’t resist taking yet another shot at the Trump campaign. Not only did the Times ignore evidence contradicting the statements it published, but according to the lawsuit, it did so without even bothering to reach out to the campaign for comment.
This failure to even attempt to verify its reporting is particularly damning for the Times, demonstrating its neglect of the most rudimentary rules of responsible journalism in its rush to publish this hit piece.
To be clear, this is not merely a case of irresponsible journalism, nor are the claims in question a matter of opinion. The First Amendment guarantees the press expansive protections as they gather and publish news — and rightly so. But the press freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment do not protect willfully defamatory speech, even against public figures. By intentionally publishing false statements, The New York Times misled its readers and broke the law.
Considering that the Times has never issued a retraction or taken any other step to set the record straight regarding the March 27, 2019 piece, the Trump campaign had no choice but to bring this transgression to the attention of the courts — and the American public.
Fake news is an existential threat to our republic, which depends on an engaged and well-informed citizenry capable of making rational decisions based on the facts at hand. The New York Times has been among the most prominent purveyors of fake news, but this lawsuit is not about the paper’s deep-seated bias against President Trump; it’s about specific libelous assertions about the Trump campaign, authored by a known partisan with the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election.
Media outlets have every right to hold a political bias — even if, like the Times, they proclaim themselves to be “objective” — but they don’t have the right to deliberately promulgate falsehoods in furtherance of that bias.
The Trump campaign’s lawsuit serves as a much-needed and timely reminder to the media that there can be consequences for lying to the American people.
They’ve been lying since Walter Duranty, so I doubt if they are going to pay much of any price.
Yea, just like the Dems are going to get arrested and thrown in jail.
“They’ve been lying since Walter Duranty, so I doubt if they are going to pay much of any price.”
Agreed. The Gray Lady has become the Gray two bit whore. The media and the political class will protect that slut.
The author sure is a “glass half full” kind of guy.
Girl,not guy.
This is an absurd lawsuit, and there is zero chance it will work, I’d be surprised if it lasted into depositions.
Plus, I want opinion pieces in opinion sections of the newspaper to be pretty free from this kind of intervention. Otherwise we’ll never get a conservative opinion published, because the left is highly litigious.
Still can’t be said enough times (but I keep trying), so...
Nevertheless, Democrats will willingly distort the facts and lie to the public to score political points.
What I have never understood is the NYT and WaPo are local papers for a target readership (limousine liberals and bureaucrats). Why does anyone care what garbage they put out?
*IF* NYT ever pays, it will be so that they will NOT admit any blame.
Besides acquisition of some of their cash, of which our enemies have plenty, nothing else would happen, even if the first Hussein Head judge chomping at the bit doesn’t dismiss it with prejudice.
Dhillon is no lightweight.
She has a promising background in cases like this.
And they got a Pulitzer Prize for the Russian hoax.
“Defamation” is one of her specialties.
Donald John Trump could buy the NY Times and scrap it without caring about the cost.
Since his campaign {with his approval} filed the lawsuit he is saying, I will spend what ever it takes, and I have more money than every Sulzberger in the world, and I will break all of you.
I think the NY Times will issue a NDA payment and an apology to the Trump campaign {after the election}.
There is no plausible deniability for them, and if they were to assert it, then in this era of the great awakening they would still be liable for failure to fact check, willful failure, because they had countervailing evidence and chose to ignore it.
That lawsuit isn’t going anywhere. The only thing it’s going to do is bring some attention to the matter. There is ZERO chance of prevailing on it.
Seems the New York Times is pushing the boundaries and perhaps these cases do have possibilities. There’s a big difference between stating one believes things could have or would have occurred, than stating they absolutely did occur. Especially when it’s evident that one knows that what they’re stating is a lie but you lie anyhow only to cause harm to someone.
Appeals Court Revives Sarah Palin’s Defamation Lawsuit Against ‘The New York Times’
I agree.
I’m not gonna hold my breath.
There are too many leftist judges and juries out there to hold the NYT accountable.
The marketplace will have to do it, by causing the NYT to have to undergo more and more layoffs, forcing losses upon their billionaire masters. Even so, I doubt the billionaire owners will care. The propaganda is worth its costs.
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