Hasn’t the Supreme Court basically ruled that the press has full license to smear public figures without being held responsible, on the basis that they are exercising their first amendment rights?
I wonder if the Supremes might revisit that opinion, now that it is one of their own being smeared.
Personally, I think the press should be held fully accountable for publishing and spreading lies.
We gotta fight. Who’s in?
Where in the Constitution is the government empowered to hold the press "fully accountable for publishing and spreading lies"? The fact of the matter is that the press isn't required to be truthful. If the Founders wanted it so, they'd have written that into the First Amendment.
This is a cost of a free society.
I agree and I hope they do revisit that stupid opinion.
My recollection is that to prove defamation a public figure has to show actual malice on the part of the defendant. So, the NYT or the press generally does not get a free pass to lie. Instead, the victim of the defamation has a more difficult time proving that the press knew the statement was a lie and published it for the purpose of defaming.