Yes. I think you might have meant to say that the standard for libeling a “public figure” are much harder to meet than, say, you or me.
You and I can sue someone for knowingly and maliciously making false claims about us that have caused us harm.
Even that is a pretty high bar to get over; and add to it that you and I would have to be rich OR find a lawyer willing to work on contingency.
The standards for Mr. Trump, or Hillary Clinton, to sue somebody for libel are almost impossible to meet, because they are “public figures”; in other words they have put themselves in the public arena, and must expect to be assailed, even untruthfully, in the rough-and-tumble public marketplace.
What bugs me is that someone like George Zimmerman or Joe the Plumber can also be torn to shreds by the media, even though they were dragged into the public eye.
But in cases like theirs CNN and others can usually escape punishment by claiming that their misstatements were errors, not intentional slander.
Probably more than you cared to read lol...
Not at all, you have good points and I enjoy reading them.
You mentioned Joe the Plumber and George Zimmerman, what happened to them was completely wrong and the fact they had no recourse is troublesome.
I don't have the answer on how to fix it, anything I would come up with would be ripe for abuse like most laws are.
I also remember Richard Jewell, he was destroyed by the media to the point he ended up committing suicide....and IIRC he won a slander case against them before he did the deed so even winning monetary compensation is not a fix for the damage done...in his case at least.