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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: reaganaut1

If it is a lie, there should not be protection.


61 posted on 02/27/2016 6:26:03 PM PST by amihow (l)
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To: reaganaut1
Trump wants to weaken libel laws amid feuds with reporters...wonder what that'll do to posters on Free Republic.....
62 posted on 02/27/2016 7:28:15 PM PST by Intolerant in NJ
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To: amihow

They aren’t lies and the truth is an absolute defense.


63 posted on 02/27/2016 7:35:30 PM PST by SeaHawkFan
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To: SeaHawkFan

If is the operative word and you nor I know whether something is. If one tells the truth, likely won’r get sued.


64 posted on 02/27/2016 7:45:12 PM PST by amihow (l)
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To: amihow
If is the operative word and you nor I know whether something is. If one tells the truth, likely won’t get sued.

Unless you are telling the truth about Donald Trump; then you might get sued by Trump. Trump tried to sus the lead plaintiff in his Trump University scam for defamation in an anti-SLAAP lawsuit. In the end, Trump had to pay the woman's lawyer almost $800,000 in legal fees.

For all his bluster, I haven't been able to find a single defamation lawsuit Trump has won, but he's lost a bunch of them.

65 posted on 02/27/2016 7:53:48 PM PST by SeaHawkFan
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To: reaganaut1

Given that DAN RATHER nearly STOLE THE ELECTION from Bush in 2004, I sure as hell hope we start HOLDING THE MEDIA TO ACCOUNT - rather than giving them a FREE PASS to both pick our candidate and pick our president.


66 posted on 02/27/2016 8:09:38 PM PST by BobL (This is no longer a Policy Wonk election, it is a MOVEMENT. Vote for the hat!)
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To: goodwithagun

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

The Times with Jason Blair made up news.

News is not supposed to be made up, fiction.

News is supposed to be as truthful as can be reported and corrected if wrong.

Your not entitled to make things up as true when they are not, that is libel, and should be punishable under the law.

The media has been getting away with too much these days.


67 posted on 02/27/2016 8:15:38 PM PST by Zenjitsuman (A)
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To: SeaHawkFan

Link please.


68 posted on 02/27/2016 8:22:01 PM PST by amihow (l)
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To: reaganaut1
Everyone needs to keep their cotton pickin’ hands off the First and Second Amendments. Even The Donald...
69 posted on 02/27/2016 8:33:15 PM PST by GOPJ ("during the time of universal deceit, telling the truth became a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: Zenjitsuman

You want speech, libel, and slander to fall under criminal law instead of civil law?


70 posted on 02/28/2016 5:49:04 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: GOPJ

Thank you! I have some yahoo telling me that libel needs to be a criminal issue instead of a civil issue! What has Free Republic become? With “conservatives” like this, I worry about our free republic as well.


71 posted on 02/28/2016 5:50:51 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: patq
And you don't think FreeRepublic and sites like it wouldn't be affected either? Really? That's pretty naive. What about Tweets by private citizens about public figures?

You can't have it both ways, though. Bloggers, citizen journalists, commenters on forums like FR can't demand the same freedoms and access that news organizations have access to while demanding that official news organizations be the only ones accountable for their content.

A lot of FReepers are missing this point. Some need to be reminded if not informed of the various lawsuits slapped on THIS site over the years regarding free speech.

72 posted on 02/28/2016 8:42:01 AM PST by paltz
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To: Zenjitsuman

Great reason for anyone to try and shutdown this site by your logic. You obviously don’t know that FR was slapped with lawsuits in the past over content. But that’s okay with you, right?


73 posted on 02/28/2016 8:45:48 AM PST by paltz
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To: goodwithagun
Are you saying you're against ‘common sense’ reform of the First Amendment? How quaint... how conservative....
74 posted on 02/28/2016 11:28:19 AM PST by GOPJ ("during ... time of universal deceit, telling the truth became a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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