Funny thing happened at work (political)

[Timber Loftis]

I haven't seen it either. My point goes to the misunderstanding of the ability to use the courts to fix it when someone lies. You can't do it. Here is the assumption, that is dangerously wrong: "If somebody lies, they'll get sued for it [so there must not have been a lie]." This is not true.

Assuming Moore had 1,001 provable lies in the thing, he'd still be virtually immune from suits to enjoin him from spreading lies. The best you could do is sue him for money damages after the fact, and even that is harder where a "public interest" like politics is at issue. But, you will NEVER find a court issuing an injunction for a political ad. They actually had this on Boston Legal last night, and the judge stated the law pretty accurately -- a court will not presume to enter into political discourse and adjudicate which ads can be aired and which can't. In fact, can you imagine the legal heyday if such a challenge could be made? Every TV ad would result in a dozen lawsuits. I'd change practices.

Basically (and heed the advice, you future politicians), politicians can make shit up all day long. I was over at NRO reading about favorite quotes -- one was Dubya's "Wanna buy some wood?" Funny thing is, he really did own a timber company. But, he feigned ignorance (or, maybe, is just plain ignorant to begin with), flipped the comment by Kerry on its head, and everyone remembers the comment, but no one remembers he really did own a timber company.

I was ranting generally at the world for a basic, and dangerous, misunderstanding of the law, Meg. I didn't mean for it to come across as being against you.

[ 11-08-2004, 07:37 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[krunchyfrogg]

Originally posted by Grojlach: Was your account hijacked by krunchyfrogg or something? That's a bit too harsh, especially by your standards...

What are you trying to say, Groj?