Posted on 02/26/2016 12:41:29 PM PST by ConservativeTeen
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Friday vowed to "open up" libel laws in order to sue media outlets that write "purposely negative" and "horrible" articles about him.
"I’m gonna open up our libel laws, so when they write purposely negative and horrible, false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money," Trump said at a rally in Fort Worth, Texas.
"We’re going to open up those libels laws," he added. "So that when The New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money."
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Libel laws should apply to our lying uniparty media.
I hope so, but...it may well be that he’s playing US for the fools!
See ya’,
Ed
Yup, the one who has been most adamant about fighting the most popular lies... is going to be the first president of meaninglessness... Suuuuuuuuuure.....
Kind of like God seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
Well God bless everybody. I believe supernatural factors are afoot here. If Donald is taking down lies with unusual effectiveness, it wouldn’t be an utterly implausible hypothesis that the Man who is the Truth might somehow be behind this.
This doesn’t make Trump some perfect saint. He may have his own personal prevarications to conquer before he gets to heaven. It just means there is a divine wind at his back.
Every mainstream media outlet in the country is owned by about 6 companies, most headquartered in NY. That’s not good.
Not only is this fruitcake certifiable he is a frigging fascist.
Trump has been saying the same pro-American things for 25 years. I ‘ve been a fan for decades . Only Trump and I understand what China is doing to the USA and how to stop China. Cruz is owned by China.
hopefully this false charlatan Cruz will be finished after Tuesday
Rubio = CRuz = Paul Ryan = typical politician
So government preventing me from suing a media maggot is a free market to you? I have a right to sue someone that harms me and the media has.
I might support Trump most of the time, but DARN!
Limited Government, Mister Trump.
LIMITED.
He needs to think this through carefully.
Very, very dangerous.
Low budget media is his strongest supporter.
Would nuisance suits be easy?
Would entire blogs be wiped out arbitrarily over one offense?
Will penalties conform to a limited budget or simply destroy the little fish?
Will gag orders blind the public?
Will he embrace the Sweden Deal? [Note my tagline.]
This could be a deal breaker for me, and all Trump supporters ought to warn him ~~
Infringement of free speech is very dangerous.
How would his laws affect small media, Drudge’s ‘din of small voices’?
Will nuisance suits be permitted?
Will the cost of legal defense drive out the little guy?
Limited government! Particularly when it comes to political discussion.
This should concern everyone.
And how arbitrary will the punishments be?
For example, ifinnegan asked how this might affect the Free Republic Forum.
If a single post is libelous, will the entire forum be deleted?
I’ve been supporting Trump, but I also hope that Cruz and Rubio bring up this issue.
I hope they mock him regarding this issue!
“Will Trump ask Hillary who the gatekeeper should be?”
Things like that.
Is Trump really so stupid that he can’t see that the same change in law that would allow him to sue would also allow legions of people to sue him for his lies and insults?
You can be sued for writing lies about someone (libel) and for saying lies about someone (slander), especially if they can prove you did harm to them in some way, like financially. If someone at work is telling lies about you and it keeps you from getting a promotion, or you lose your job because of it, you can sue in court and win, if you can prove it.
Richard Jewell. He received settlements in all of his cases (NBC, CNN, NYPost, et al.) except one (which was eventually overturned on appeal after his death).
I then looked him up.
He was hardly a public figure like Madona, Elizabeth Taylor, Bill O’Reilly, etc.. Name we a FAMOUS who has won a libel suit in this country?
One can imagine his frustrations and on the surface the idea sounds good....but the repercussions could be horrific.
There must be other ways to keep the irresponsible media in check.
AFAIK, the standard is still ‘reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity’, even for a public person. I’d guess there must be law or case law that has made ‘reckless disregard’ meaningless.
‘Free speech’ original intent meant one was free to criticize the government, even in outlandish ways. The Founders would have laughed at the idea that it applied to pornography, for example.
Granted, the degenerate porn seen today was not contemplated by the founders as protected free speech.
However, I often think of Benjamin Franklin in France successfully convincing the French to help our fledgling nation.
Ben was reputed to be quite the man about town in libertine France....and enjoyed all of the pleasures France had to offer.
Perhaps he brought back souvenirs of licentious France?
I agree with you that Trump is now seeing how dangerous the Ruling Class can be.
It probably alarmed him at the need to scramble when unfairly attacked on the final weekend before Super Tuesday. He’s handling all of it well from what I’m seeing, but he probably wonders how others might get buried.
This phase of the primary is designed to improve the chances of October Surprises no matter how deceitful they are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.