Why do they get away with it?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have a question for you of bigger brain and higher intelligence.

If I approach you on the street and orally poke fun at you, you may sue me for slander, liable and harassment. In some instances, if I take a picture of you in public and show it on TV or in a book, magazine or paper, you may sue me. If I stand out on the street and video tape you in your home and publish it, you can take me to court. If I lie about you on any public media, you can sue me. If I accuse you of doing not very likely sexual things, via a public media, you can slap an injunction against me.

I listen to talk radio. How is it that these people can poke fun at public icons, like presidents and singers, and not get sued? I watch some comedy channels and year after year have seen comics rip all presidents of the US apart. The current attack on Clinton I find humiliating because I think it makes us all look bad when comics start commenting on his sexual habits. Why don’t they get sued? On the Cop shows, they started blotting out the faces of some people in the scenes - yet newspapers do no such thing. Paparazzi trespass on private property, invade privacy, stalk stars and harass them yet very rarely are sued.

Many talk show hosts poke savage fun at the new young female singers and some have taken sound bites of them, strung them together out of context, then played them back to form sexual implications. They don’t get sued.

In this litigious society, how can these areas get away with saying and doing what they want with impunity?

I once talked with a photographer who was putting together a book a pictures about rural America and he told me that he needed to get release forms signed by the people in the pictures. Yet I’ve watched programs where something like National Geographic cameramen click away at everyone with no waivers filled out.

There was a case where one neighbor filmed another neighbor having sex with his own wife in his own apartment across a street, several stories up, through an open kitchen window. He took the horny neighbor to court for public display of sex and sued him and won. The neighbor sued the cameraman for invasion of privacy and lost. Why?

I mean, I like talk radio but when they string together audio clips of Clinton to make it seem like he is talking real time about screwing Monica or anyone else, I figure they cross the line of civil rights and freedom of speech.

How do they get away with it?

2

Because libel laws are different for public figures.

In order for a public figure to win a libel suit, they have to prove a gross disregard for the truth. You have to show not only that the speaker lied to damage your reputation, but that he knew it was a lie and still made the statement. That’s such a high standard that few people bother.

3

Welcome to the SDMB! Say, didja know that you don’t have to spend the rest of your life looking like someone who absent-mindedly typed his e-mail address into the “Name” registration field? Send an e-mail to any of the moderators and they can do you a very nice name change, no sweat.

OTOH, maybe you’re just real anxious to get e-mail, I dunno…

4

Thanks. I e-mailed someone but got no reply, so I’ll try again.

Kinda obvious, huh?

5

The other thing to remember is that a lawsuit would often bring more negative publicity than the original slander, so even if they did have a good case, they’d often let it go.

6

mmmmBBBWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

points and laughs
…eh, so sue me.

7

As RealityChuck said, rules are different for public figures. And if it’s clearly comedy or satire, it’s allowed. Remember the case a few years ago where Hustler ran a piece labeled “satire” that Jerry Falwell had sex with his mother (if I recall correctly)? Falwell sued and lost. The judge’s decision was basically “Personally, I find this repulsive, but because it’s clearly labeled ‘satire’, it’s allowed.” I find the jokes about Clinton’s behavior benign compared to that.

Hint - papers don’t print every picture they get.

For better or worse, you are incorrect. As has been said repeatedly in the past decade or two, the more objectionable speech is, the more it must be protected. You and anyone else are also free to state your objections.

8

So, this means that I can say that you ****** your ------- and have been a ======= for years with a prison record for doing ===== to a **** and you can’t do anything about it if it happens to be a lie?

How about those people accused of being child molesters by the media who were not and had their lives ruined because of it?

There is such a thing a defamation of character, so when does that come into play?

9

My understanding is that on COPS they only blur the faces of minors. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.