Let’s sue FOX News for contributing to the stupidity of America. With a good lawyer, I think it can be done.
We live in a country where a thief can sue a homeowner because the thief broke his leg while breaking and entering. I know that if we put our minds together we can find a way to sue FOX News for contributing to the stupidity of America. While we’re at it, we should throw in Drudge, NewsMax, and most definitely Alex Jones.
There is a way around the protections of the First Amendment if the speech proves a direct harm to individuals, or we can prove actual malice. We already have studies that show FOX News viewers are less informed than people who don’t watch news at all. No news is better than FOX News. More bluntly, FOX News makes you dumb. Couple that with an aggressive defamation claim by democrats (who according to most right-wing media outlets want to destroy the world, are fat, lazy, gay, baby murdering socialists), and we might at minimum have a case that probably won’t win, but makes enough noise to make some people on the right wake up to how much harm extreme right-wing media can do.
Sue FOX News & Right-Wing Media for Defamation of America
Defamation is a tough case, but in the Obama era with the Tea Party running around like rabid dogs, it’s not impossible to win (from findlaw):
” … according to the Court… public officials could only win a defamation suit when the statement that was made was not an honest mistake and was in fact published with the actual intent to harm the public figure. According to the Court, actual malice only occurs when the person making the statement knew the statement was not true at the time he made it, or had reckless disregard for whether it was true or not.”
Think it will be difficult to prove malice and “reckless disregard” with right-wing media icons like Alex Jones?
Public figures have to put up with more balderdash than most people, and the law makes it that way so that the free speech of everyone else is still protected. The key is to prove “Actual Malice” on behalf of the media within Republicanland. FOX News and all those book-selling “news personalities” disseminating false information isn’t enough on its own – we have to prove that they did it intentionally to harm in some way. Can everyone say “Obamacare”? The entire 2012 presidential election? Benghazi? Medicare expansion?
If only the ACA could sue for defamation. How many republicans out there hate Obamacare, but love Medicare Expansion, and Kentucky’s deep-red population who loves Obamacare so long as it’s not called Obamacare. Can a law sue a news organization? The ACA definitely has a case. President Obama has an extraordinary case. It’s one thing to be biased in media, and another to lie over the airwaves to create the sort of hate and fear that happens on the right, all of which has harmed the U.S. government significantly.
Back to “Actual Malice”. There are countless, documented instances of meetings, mailers and rallies where the leaders intentionally told lies in order to harm not only Obama and the Democratic Party – but the entire U.S. Government. What makes it worse is many of these organizations have “News” in their name just like their sister super PACs have “America” and “Freedom” in them. No one in the world would deny that proving actual malice would be difficult to prove – so why not have democrats sue FOX News?
Congress is suing Obama (or at least they keep saying they will in order to raise money)… why not jump on the symbolic suing bandwagon and have democrats sue FOX? Even if the case drops, some truth would have to get out in the process. (And it would be very entertaining). Can a progressive PAC sue FOX News on behalf of all those FOX has intentionally defamed?
Sue FOX News & Right Wing Media for Contributing to the Stupidity of a Nation
I imagine that this part of a lawsuit against right-wing media is a bit more tricky. However, there are a lot of smart lawyers out there who can find reasons to sue anyone for anything, which is why I’m asking for input and help.
For example, I know a student can’t sue a teacher for teaching incorrect information – unless that information ultimately results in harm to the student. If a right wing media organization deliberately gives false information to sway its viewers and listeners to vote in a way that does harm to them – can they sue? Can we sue on their behalf? Can we prove that “being an idiot” as a result of a news organization is a measurable harm done deliberately to FOX News viewers?
Since this lawsuit would be mostly for show, anyway (because what lawsuit isn’t these days?), we would want to ensure the harm is as significant as possible. Believing in falsehoods isn’t a great harm, but if people act on those falsehoods, then the results of those actions could. Example: Hannibal Lector whispering into the ear of someone for long enough until they believe that they have to go out and kills someone – or point guns and law officials on a Nevada ranch, or shoot up a diner, or “fight back” with such vigor that the country comes to a complete standstill. We can’t sue the people for believing something that isn’t true, but we can sue the people who made them believe the thing that is not true if they did so with actual malice.
Is this absurd? Yes, of course it is. But is it really absurd… no, not really. There is a case to be argued and a point to be made. A symbolic case, but a case nonetheless. As republicans in Congress understand, sometimes you sue just to make a point. Let’s sue FOX News for making people idiots and defaming the entire country, then see where it leads.
Who’s with me?
