Schiff's Impeachment Train to Nowhere

American Thinker ^ | November 3, 2019 | Clarice Feldman

[GailA]

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Good piece.

Agreed.

Even without removal, Trump is being damaged with the low information average dolt catching a few slanderous comments on the airport TV during a layover. Guy on the next seat: “I heard on TV Trump’s administration if the most corrupt in history.” “Yeah, heard that, too.”

This is what all Republicans have faced, to one degree or another, for all my lifetime (with the limited exception of President Eisenhower). The problem is caused by

• The fact that the wire services created a cartel of all major US journalism.

• The fact that “if it bleeds, it leads,” journalism promotes bad (the opposite of “in the public interest”) news which it promotes as important and “objective.” This perspective (“bias”) inherently slants journalism in favor of bigger government.

• The unanimous 1964 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan Warren Court decision has inhibited libel suits by Republicans (exclusively, in the sense that Democrats don’t get libeled).

Journalists pretend that the First Amendment gives them, essentially, a priestly function of defining the public interest - and exploit that position exclusively for their own interest. There is one potential sovereign remedy: the journalism cartel, and the FCC and FEC which enable/empower it, must be sued under antitrust law.

And - in the teeth of the Sullivan decision - the journalism cartel must be sued for $billions in damages for libel. As Antonin Scalia explained, the Bill of Rights was carefully crafted to be a guarantee that no right of any American was, or would in future be, changed by the Constitution. Pace the Warren Court, the right to redress if libeled was untouched by 1A.

[polymuser]

Thank you for that.
How to fight/reverse this damned situation? Who will bring the lawsuits — we damaged news consumers as a class?

[frank ballenger]

Fact filled post. Thanks.

I recommend your fine web page which is a mini-educational course in itself. Learned a lot.

[FormerFRLurker]

One quibble with your otherwise excellent post: choice of doctors and health plan decisions have already been taken away from the vast majority of Americans. You don’t choose which doctor you go to, your insurance company does. And if you have health insurance through your employer they choose your health plan or offer you just a few choices.

The free market is not as free as many Americans think it is.

[frank ballenger]

I think Medicare and supplemental plans vary from place to place. We were able to keep our doctors (so far, knock wood!) as I retired in 2017.

Many people cannot, as you said.

It is true what a leftist wrote in a newspaper comment: (paraphrased) People are afraid of future rationing by single payer. But they have that now, rationed by the insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. They rule the Rx list, say a generic is ok, say a test or a procedure costs too much so it is out, and so on.

Hate to say such a thing but (gulp) the liberal was sort of right. But a true single payer system would destroy all the medical delivery system for ruin us.

[frank ballenger]

...to ruin us.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Thank you both :-)

How to fight/reverse this damned situation? Who will bring the lawsuits — we damaged news consumers as a class?

That has long been my own question. But MHO is, presently, that libel damaging Joe Schmoe has very limited political implication - it is the fact that Sullivan inhibits libel suits by people the libeling of whom systematically has the most effect on our polity which is the worst aspect of Sullivan. And therefore only a major Republican figure - or possibly the Republican Party or a state Republican Party - can sue for libel and have a big impact.

So much for the libel issue. But Antitrust is a different matter. The reality is that there the general population might have an effect. We are supposedly able to sue for treble damages under Sherman. But it is also true that Antitrust law is criminal law - and therefore, that criminal action could be brought by the Attorney General or one of his minions.

[The Bishop]

Amen, very true.