First amendment right to lie
Katie Couric did some bogus gun documentary in which she used selective editing to make gun rights supporters look like they had no answer to a question. Well, VCDL sued her for libel over it. And they did not win:
A judge concludes that a scene where gun rights advocates were shown in silence to a question was neither false nor carried any harmful implication.
The scene was absolutely false. But, under libel law, they still didn’t have a real case.
June 1st, 2017 at 5:59 pm
The Soviets told us, long ago, openly and clearly, that they would use our system to destroy us. The American Progressives loved them too. In this enlightened age however, no one rembers any of it.
June 1st, 2017 at 6:04 pm
Free speech is protected. Sedition isn’t. What’s the difference? Where do you draw the line?
While we’re busy pondering those questions, the Progressives are busy as bees, “educating” the next generation of “community organizers”, lawyers, politicians and police.
June 1st, 2017 at 9:17 pm
Fake judge, fake law. If judges keep doing stuff like this, we are going to have to relegalize dueling.
June 2nd, 2017 at 2:21 am
Eugene Volokh calls BS on that judge:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/06/01/judge-in-katie-couric-under-the-gun-libel-case-calls-argument-against-background-checks-sophistry/
June 2nd, 2017 at 2:21 am
oops, that’s your second link. never mind 🙂
June 2nd, 2017 at 2:52 am
IANAL, so I don’t have the chops to confirm or deny the legal rationality of this; I suspect we haven’t heard the last of it, though.
In the meantime, it should be an object lesson on dealings with the media.
June 3rd, 2017 at 4:25 am
@lyle: Progressives are busy as bees, “educating” the next generation of “community organizers”, lawyers, politicians and police.
I completely agree except that this isn’t a set up for the future. The last 2 generations have been indoctrinated in lefty bullshit, “woe is me” & “where’s my free shit”.
Unless we take back the school systems, this is how they want it to play out.
June 5th, 2017 at 5:32 pm
Seerak: Note that Volokh is agreeing that the VCDL should have lost: “I think that argument is legally insufficient.”
He disagrees only on the claim that the edit was “not dishonest” (and he is completely correct.
June 7th, 2017 at 8:39 am
@KM, yes, you’re correct. I recall a quote which says something like, “tyranny is always better organized than Liberty.”