Obviously this is setting a disturbing precedent with media companies being held liable for their reporting. A free press is very important in a democracy. Judges skeptical of medias' motives Media organizations are starting to lose cases dealing with libel / slander and defamation. Why is the First Amendment not shielding them any longer? Legal experts say it is because judges are now skeptical of the medias' motives: they do no see them as independently reporting news, but rather as political operatives. A string of recent court setbacks for news organizations is prompting jitters among First Amendment advocates who fear that it could signal an erosion of the deference press outlets have enjoyed for decades in cases challenging their reporting. Some legal experts view the rulings as signs that the courts’ view of the media is beginning to change, with more judges embracing the notion that major news outlets are partisan combatants rather than engaged in a dispassionate search for the truth. "It does seem to me there is a seismic shift," said Jane Kirtley, a University of Minnesota law professor and former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "Judges are being very skeptical about the news media’s motives. … I think it’s fair to raise the point of whether this is part of a general disquiet with what the media are doing and whether they're now being seen increasingly as having a partisan agenda." Do you know what my personal opinion of this is? These media organizations deserved it. This wasn't about real journalism at all, it was just pure slander for political reasons. Still, if it were up to me, I would be a whole lot more cautious and reluctant to use these slander laws. I believe in freedom of the press, even when it's blatant intentional lies. Because the issue will come down to courts deciding what is truth and what are lies, and do you really want to be trusting government to do that? Ultimately the discernment needs to be made by the voters.
Excerpt: The following day, a federal District Court judge in Texas dealt a blow to NPR by rejecting the network’s motion to throw out a $57 million lawsuit challenging its reporting about efforts by a conservative investor, Ed Butowsky, to stir up interest in the death of Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, and the unsubstantiated possibility that he leaked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. In ordering that Butowsky’s suit proceed to the fact-finding process, Judge Amos Mazzant said the NPR reports implied “wrongdoing” by the investor and were not protected by privileges for reporting on public legal filings. And earlier this month, the 2nd Circuit struck again, with a different panel of the same court breathing new life into a suit that Rich’s parents brought against Fox News alleging that the network conspired with Butowsky to concoct and publish false reports that their son had dealings with WikiLeaks. In another unanimous ruling, the three judges said the case easily met the standard for plausibility — even though it also claims that a major news outlet deliberately published lies.
The same goes for this, the press has 100% absolute rights reserved by the people in BoR addition to the constitution, but rights end of the tip of the other guys nose. Thats way its supposed to work! If there are injuries or damages incurred due to their exercising their right sue, not make arbitrary statutes like they have in religion, speech, and firearms etc. Now if the gov comes behind and makes a statute that is not the way its supposed to work, since states always require some sort of pretest to overcome prior to being admissible, so if your blocks dont fit their prescribed hole tbss. Gov ,making statutes out of these things is not the way its supposed to work. The BoR only memorialized the reservation of our right to the tip of the next guys nose not beyond. No one has a right to injure or damage another, except government in this day in age, they can do whatever they please because they have nukes and tanks and up yer butt surveillance to watch every move you make.
