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Trump wants to weaken libel laws amid feuds with reporters
Associated Press ^ | February 27, 2016 | Jeff Horwitz

Posted on 02/27/2016 2:46:21 PM PST by reaganaut1

Edited on 02/27/2016 2:52:46 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

Feeling maligned by the media, Donald Trump is threatening to weaken First Amendment protections for reporters if he were president and make it easier for him to sue them.

"I love free press. I think it's great," he said Saturday on Fox News Channel, before quickly adding, "We ought to open up the libel laws, and I'm going to do that."


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1repost; 1stamendment; 2repost; 3repost; 4repost; freedominion; libel; trump
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To: dschapin
If it weren't for media lies and federal coordinated propaganda supporting the DC Establishment, we wouldn't have a $19 Trillion debt to pay back.

Media Reform is crucial for our country.

21 posted on 02/27/2016 3:04:44 PM PST by o2bfree (DNC = RNC :-)
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To: reaganaut1
*Hillary campaign tells media when they can and cannot photograph Hillary in public. Media has no problem and like the government controlled handmaidens that they are, they obey without murmuring a word.

*Trump suggests that media lies that are by definition election fraud should face the same laws as any other type of election fraud, the media howls that lies and election fraud are protected by the First Amendment (which they are not)

Our founders never could conceive of the dirtiest scumbag biggest liars in the world that are our media now. (I borrowed Don's description; can't beat those adjectives to describe media)

22 posted on 02/27/2016 3:05:34 PM PST by gg188 (Ted Cruz, R - Goldman Sachs)
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To: cloudmountain

Didn’t some mag just put out a cover with a pic of Trump with two hooded KKK guys behind him? That’s pretty slimy!


23 posted on 02/27/2016 3:06:11 PM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: dschapin
Trump supporters seem to be fine with a government controlled press.

I have been reading your repetitive posts all day. The only thing you have convinced me of is that you are far and away the biggest drama queen I have ever seen on FR. And that is saying something.
24 posted on 02/27/2016 3:06:12 PM PST by JoSixChip (Ted Cruz (R-Goldman Sachs) - He's creepy and he's kooky, mysterious and spooky)
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To: dschapin

A newspaper story is not political speech. Oh, they can repeat what a candidate said, but to make something up out of whole cloth and say, “anonymous this and sources that” is something altogether different. Add in the fact that the media are simply corporate, globalist handmaidens and you have a specific issue. Personally, I think bringing it to light is fine and if they ever address it - don’t hold your breathe - then fine too.


25 posted on 02/27/2016 3:07:34 PM PST by Lagmeister ( false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders Mark 13:22)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
Didn’t some mag just put out a cover with a pic of Trump with two hooded KKK guys behind him? That’s pretty slimy!

Lol. ANYone with a brain knows that Trump won't associate with financial losers.

VERY slimy!

26 posted on 02/27/2016 3:07:50 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: reaganaut1

Don’t waste your breath, remember “I could shoot someone and my supporters would still back me”

It doesn’t matter what he will do or say hope and change 2.0 has taken root and along with it many so called conservatives with it.


27 posted on 02/27/2016 3:08:04 PM PST by Jarhead9297
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To: SE Mom

People haven’t caught on to the truth.

Trump is a male Hillary.

The main differences being,
1. his suits are better fitting
2. he has (a little) more testosterone.

He smears those whom he sees as a threat.
He’s got plans to give us TrumpCare.
He supported bombing Libya.
He keeps mentioning he could nominate his pro-abort sister for USSC (though he backs off from that once in a while to keep his GOP creds.)
He can lie with ease.


28 posted on 02/27/2016 3:08:15 PM PST by syriacus (Trump is Hillary Clinton -- but in a better suit and with a little more testosterone.)
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To: reaganaut1

The 1964 case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, however, radically changed the nature of libel law in the United States by establishing that public officials could win a suit for libel only when they could prove the media outlet in question knew either that the information was wholly and patently false or that it was published “with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not”. Later Supreme Court cases barred strict liability for libel and forbid libel claims for statements that are so ridiculous as to be patently false. Recent cases have added precedent on defamation law and the Internet.


29 posted on 02/27/2016 3:08:19 PM PST by bigbob ("Victorious warriors win first and then go to war" Sun Tzu.)
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To: dschapin

Well said.

Political speech needs to stay protected.


30 posted on 02/27/2016 3:08:39 PM PST by Let's Roll (So much left-wing thought is playing with fire by those who don't even know fire is hot - Orwell)
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To: reaganaut1

Hot air. If what he desires were to materialize can you see what a coup this would be for the likes of CAIR and other Islamic activists to kill America via free speech suppression?
Somebody needs to chat with him about this....


31 posted on 02/27/2016 3:09:46 PM PST by magna carta
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To: JoSixChip
Judge Scalia has been God Like Status, here

“Now the old libel law used to be (that) you’re responsible, you say something false that harms somebody’s reputation, we don’t care if it was told to you by nine bishops, you are liable,” Scalia continued. “New York Times v. Sullivan just cast that aside because the Court thought in modern society, it’d be a good idea if the press could say a lot of stuff about public figures without having to worry. And that may be correct, that may be right, but if it was right it should have been adopted by the people. It should have been debated in the New York Legislature and the New York Legislature could have said, ‘Yes, we’re going to change our libel law.’ But the living constitutionalists on the Supreme Court, the Warren Court, simply decided, ‘Yes, it used to be that … George Washington could sue somebody that libeled him, but we don’t think that’s a good idea any more.’”

32 posted on 02/27/2016 3:10:29 PM PST by scooby321
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To: o2bfree

When you say “media reform is crucial for our country” what do you have in mind? Fairness doctrine? Political speech quashed? Laws forbidding jackasses from publishing foolishness? Who will be the arbiter of this reform?


33 posted on 02/27/2016 3:11:20 PM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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To: minnesota_bound

he will be a goon POTUS. he will use the IRS and FBI as a hammer on people who spoke out against him. If you thought Obama was bad, wait til you see the havoc this turd will let loose.
And yet the zombies here will sing his praises. Damn the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we have to beat the democrats.


34 posted on 02/27/2016 3:12:01 PM PST by Yorlik803 ( Church/Caboose in 2016)
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To: Lagmeister

Ever since the beginning of our Country media outlets have never been neutral. And the back and forth debate between the different media outlets that supported the various different parties have been part of the lifeblood of our political discourse. You are trying to impose government control over the media and it will not end well.


35 posted on 02/27/2016 3:12:05 PM PST by dschapin
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To: Yorlik803

That is exactly what I fear, that Trump would be the most despotic President that we have ever had.


36 posted on 02/27/2016 3:14:10 PM PST by dschapin
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To: gg188

“Hillary campaign tells media when they can and cannot photograph Hillary in public.”

Just today the Clinton campaign ordered all photographers to leave an airport tarmac and notified them that Hillary would not board her private jet until they did.

They all immediately prattled off without objection.


37 posted on 02/27/2016 3:14:21 PM PST by KyCats
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To: dschapin

“The courts have ruled that public figures can only sue for libel in very clearcut cases. “

I take it you don’t think much of what the MSM does is “clearcut libel?”
I guess you don’t watch the nightly news! Then you have Duke La Crosse, and the recent Fraternity closing (at whatever U) driven by Rolling Stone. I guess those are not libel either? Everyone in those cases ( except the crooked DA in NC) escaped justice. So eve non-public figures don’t get their wrongs addressed in court today.


38 posted on 02/27/2016 3:14:48 PM PST by vette6387 (Obama can go to hell!)
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To: vette6387

What NBC did to George Zimmerman should have put them out of business.


39 posted on 02/27/2016 3:16:42 PM PST by KyCats
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To: reaganaut1

Well, Trump is, at heart, an establishment Leftist Democrat and they HATE the Bill of Rights.
As president he won’t have to shout “liar! liar! nasty guy!” when someone points out what a crooked con artist he is.
He will instead wreck the 1st Amendment and have the fellow arrested and sent to the Gulag like any other tin plated narcissistic totalitarian tyrant.


40 posted on 02/27/2016 3:16:49 PM PST by Happy Rain (CRUZ 2016 "Closest Thing We Have To Reagan" - Rush Limbaugh)
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