Posted on 02/27/2016 10:02:24 AM PST by dschapin
Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to change libel laws in the United States so that he can have an easier time suing news organizations.
During a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, Trump began his usual tirade against newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, saying they're "losing money" and are "dishonest." The Republican presidential candidate then took a different turn, suggesting that when he's president they'll "have problems."
"One of the things I'm going to do if I win, and I hope we do and we're certainly leading. I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws. So 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 instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected," Trump said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/donald-trump-libel-laws-219866#ixzz41OOQy1Ch
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Donny is thinking of reinstituting the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
Well, if they're losing money because of their dishonesty, then let the natural course of capitalism run its course.
As president, is he going to change those laws using a pen and a phone?
Jim, please take a look at what Trump said yesterday about wanting to change the libel laws to make it easier for him to sue media organizations that he thinks have slandered him. This is chilling stuff that could affect FR if Trump was able to implement it.
And sites such as FR could then be censored or shut down
That can backfire for sure. Freedom of the press is an expressed right and freedom the feds have not right to curtail. Trump’s blowing smoke on this one.
He would try. Trump is a Big Government autocrat at heart.
IMO, it means the media will have to start printing and reporting news instead of innuendo, opinion as fact, and speculation about issues...
Truth wins out...
The media is biased. Abusively biased. But they're paying for it already by declining viewer and readership and a majority do not trust them anymore when it comes to political news.
All this happened without tinkering with the First Amendment In their worship of the Donald, they don't think of the ramifications this has for now and the future
You honestly believe our media should be able to be immune to lawsuits when they lie, as long as they say they “meant no malice?” If they are lying in opinion pieces, I’m much more okay with that than news items.
Only liberals get away with that, otherwise. People like you or I are held accountable.
You need to look at what Trump said yesterday about changing the libel laws to make it easier for him to sue news organizations that he thinks have treated him unfairly. This is really scary stuff that shows Trump wants to be an autocrat. Please ping the Cruz list.
> It’s not an attack on free speech. It’s an attack on deliberate, criminal lies.
Indeed, but we already have libel laws on the books. I do not wish to give the federal government more power in this area, they have enough.
I believe the plaintiff also has to show that they have been damaged by the false statements.
Destroying the Constitution and our freedoms to attack a few of our enemies is a really bad trade.
As posted in an earlier thread, Scalia was in agreement.
What needs to be adjusted? The current common law is if a news source publishes a misrepresentation about a public figure and the pubic figure proves malice, the public figure wins.
FREE SPEECH will be gone....... and America will NEVER be great again, but so be it.
Without a quote from an opinion. I am going to reject that comment out of hand.
The MSM in this country has been ninety percent leftist for a very long time. They a good part of the reason America is such a mess today, and why we get anti-American politicians like Obama and Clinton as presidents. Why should the MSM keep on getting protection, that is not available to most, to pervert the First Amendment in such a way as to destroy our country?
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