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The New York Times Is About to Face a Reckoning For Its Lies
Townhall.com ^ | February 28, 2020 | Harmeet Dhillon

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: lawsuit; media; msm; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes
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To: Kaslin

I think the rag should be shut down as a toxic waste sight


21 posted on 02/28/2020 11:17:18 AM PST by McGavin999 (Queen Fancy Nancy Of North Poopistan)
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To: SanchoP; All

The population in and around DC aka the Swamp (historically was an actual swamp) is composed of government employees in the first tier, with support industries behind them such as retail, restaurants, schools, teachers etc. And there is a large contingent of federal contractors and lobbyists.

This population derives their livelihood from the federal gravy train. There are at least 3,000,000 direct federal employees expanding to well over 10,000,000 when all those linked to them are added in.

While the rest of America was plunged into the abyss during the mortgage meltdown and financial collapse presided over by a Bush moron, and suffered through the sick ‘recovery’ of the *sshol-in-chief Odumb*ss, the federal bureaucracy was living the high life with their average salaries surpassing for the first time those in the private sector.

The liberal fake news caters to this population and they have a national and international syndicate of distributors so their propaganda arm is quite long.

Jeff Bezos’s (Amazon) father was a typical CIA privileged swamp *sshole allowing Bezos to benefit from association with Clowns in America, how? Bezo’s online retail model never made a profit until 2011. Amazon went nearly 17 years without a profit, then the books were cooked and they eked out a quarterly profit for the first time. Soon after they were chosen as ‘sole source’ to perform cloud services for the Clowns in a multi-billion dollar contract that catapulted them into retail dominance (and I admit they’ve done well but so would others if they had been flushed with cash).

When Bezos was told he would be point man for the CIA’s multi-billion cloud services contract, he was instructed to buy the failing nearly bankrupt WAPO which is now a CIA mouthpiece.

The CIA is no longer an exclusive US agency, it is an international consortium of enforcers for central banksters, all with their hands out for huge piles of cash compensation, in other words a globalist mercenary network of unpatriotic insiders who hate Trump because Trump represents a threat to exposing their corruption.

WAPO is this rogue CIA’s propaganda mouthpiece.

Other large fake news outlets have similar globalist puppetmasters. The audience is global and serves to portray what is happening in America. But people around the globe are waking up via social media. Living in the era of the Great Awakening spells a slow irreversible death to fake news.

But back to WAPO, Karma visits their local dog walker Bezos. He lost his multi-billion dollar cloud services contract to Microsoft which is run by Indian Indians as in people from India, who are loyal to Trump. Trump punished Bezos and now Bezos is stuck with the loser WAPO. Yes, Karma is indeed a b*tch.


22 posted on 02/28/2020 11:23:59 AM PST by Hostage (Article V)
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To: CharlesWayneCT

“Plus, I want opinion pieces in opinion sections of the newspaper to be pretty free from this kind of intervention.”

Sure except the article in question was not stated as opinion but as fact.


23 posted on 02/28/2020 11:24:15 AM PST by billyboy15
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To: Mears

Harmeet - smart as all get-out and pretty, too.


24 posted on 02/28/2020 11:39:05 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again".)
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To: McGavin999

25 posted on 02/28/2020 11:41:53 AM PST by BushCountry (thinks he needs a gal whose name doesn't end in ".jpg")
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To: Kaslin
I certainly hope that the NY Times suffers a humiliating court defeat.

Actually, I expect they will seek an out of court settlement.

In either case, I want them hit hard for lots of monetary damages AND something humiliating. Say a page 1 above the fold, apology to the President, to the American people and to their readers that they have been a source of lies, fake news and Democratic propaganda.

Then that the NYT will create an office of journalistic fairness & ethics that will provide all reporters and editors with training on proper journalistic conduct and the importance of presenting impartial facts so that readers can make up their own opinions.

Perhaps, there should be a new banner for the NY Times, that states “Repenting of years of Democratic & Communist propaganda, from Walter Duranty lying about Stalin to current reporters lying about Trump.”

26 posted on 02/28/2020 12:16:45 PM PST by Robert357
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To: Kaslin
The First Amendment guarantees the press expansive protections as they gather and publish news — and rightly so.

Commonly held misinformation. As I recently learned after 40+ years, “press” refers to a mechanical device, NOT the news media industry.

27 posted on 02/28/2020 12:30:08 PM PST by The Truth Will Make You Free
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To: The Truth Will Make You Free

To further clarify “press” in the First Amendment refers to individual rights. If social media are considered the “press” of today, their blocking conservatives is denying our First Amendment rights.


28 posted on 02/28/2020 12:33:05 PM PST by The Truth Will Make You Free
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To: CharlesWayneCT

Andrew McCarthy over at National Review Online is pretty skeptical of this law suit. He is generally pretty Trump friendly (wrote Ball of Collusion).


29 posted on 02/28/2020 12:40:55 PM PST by bagman
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To: desertfreedom765

“They’ve been lying since Walter Duranty, so I doubt if they are going to pay much of any price.”

Shoot, they have lying since Jimmy.


30 posted on 02/28/2020 12:45:14 PM PST by Beagle8U (Did Eric Ciaramella kill Epstein? He didn't kill himself.)
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To: jacknhoo

The wheels of justice turn at an excruciatingly slow pace. I think Ben Franklin would be aghast. One of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention asked Dr. Franklin, “Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy.” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”


31 posted on 02/28/2020 12:51:23 PM PST by RetiredScientist
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To: billyboy15
Sure except the article in question was not stated as opinion but as fact.

It was published in the opinion section.

32 posted on 02/28/2020 12:57:49 PM PST by semimojo
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To: billyboy15

But it was an opinion piece in the opinion section. That the opinion-writer had a high regard for his own opinion does not change that.


33 posted on 02/28/2020 1:15:08 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: CharlesWayneCT

Please read the thread. It explains quite clearly why the suit was brought.


34 posted on 02/28/2020 1:43:08 PM PST by billyboy15
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To: Kaslin

Is there a libel lawyer out ther who can tall us if an allegation like this has ever prevailed? What’s the general rule in Condtitutional law?


35 posted on 02/28/2020 1:55:15 PM PST by Socon-Econ (adical Islam,)
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To: Kaslin

Does anyone know the name of this hater?


36 posted on 02/28/2020 2:18:06 PM PST by HollyB
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To: CharlesWayneCT

They need to learn their place and be reminded of laws. From lying to the Fisa court to continuous slander in the NY Times and other media sources, it’s past high time for them to be held accountable.


37 posted on 02/28/2020 2:22:19 PM PST by HollyB
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To: Fido969

Well, as you can see from the link below your comment - The courts reinstated Palin’s defamation suit against the NYTimes. So, it’s not over till it’s over.


38 posted on 02/28/2020 2:25:59 PM PST by HollyB
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To: USS Alaska

I’m not a lawyer but it is the campaign that is suing so technically it’s not a libel suit by an individual but a political organization. Perhaps this is the path versus a publif official being able to sue. The NYT probably thought they were immune because they attacked Trump directly and he countered indirectly.


39 posted on 02/28/2020 4:38:40 PM PST by Squeako (You can lead a progressive to water, but can you make him drown?)
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To: Squeako

Perhaps the NYT will cave in order to prevent discovery of all their anti-Trump emails.


40 posted on 02/28/2020 5:11:01 PM PST by aimhigh (THIS is His commandment . . . . 1 John 3:23)
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