My law professors told us to forget about ever pursuing a defamation lawsuit because proving libel was an impossibly high bar. U.S. law deemed truth to be an absolute defense. Moreover, the 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan mandated that plaintiffs had to prove that the libeler either knew that the information it published was wholly or patently false, or that it was published "with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” Subsequent Supreme Court cases forbade libel claims for statements that are so ridiculous as to be obviously facetious. The courts have also held that a prospective plaintiff must give the alleged defamer an opportunity to retract its libelous assertions. Consequently, the defamation cause of action largely lay dormant in the U.S. court system.
Then, as the century turned, along came the Republican Party’s far-right propaganda machine in the form of sleazy outlets and platforms such as Fox News, Newsmax, OANN, Alex Jones’s InfoWars et al., with their unceasing salvos of exaggerations and outright lies. Suddenly, winnable defamation actions surged.
In one of the largest defamation awards in U.S. history, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay approximately $1 billion in actual damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting after claiming incessantly on his InfoWars broadcasts that the massacre was a hoax. This case was followed by Dominion Voting Systems’ suit against Fox News for the barrage of lies Fox spewed about the company and its products after the 2020 election. Fox is on the hook to Dominion for $787 million. Another voting machine company, Smartmatic, is suing Fox for $2.7 billion for similar lies the “fair and balanced” network vomited out to its viewers. Disgraced and soon-to-be-disbarred Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, lost a defamation suit to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of cheating. To the extent he is able to pay the massive damages awarded by the court, he may soon be sleeping on a heating grate in the city he once ran like a medieval fiefdom. Hopefully, the Georgia plaintiffs are standing in line waiting to sue Donald Trump for similar libelous attacks on them. Trump has already been found liable for defaming E. Jean Carroll, whom he sexually assaulted in a department store dressing room, to the tune of $83 million. And, Fox News was just recently alerted that Hunter Biden is poised to sue it for defamation.
The revival of defamation as a viable cause of action has been a bonanza for lawyers. However, it has not been a fun time for right-wing media and its discredited heroes. Notwithstanding, don’t expect these creatures to change their stripes and give up lying. Not gonna happen.
Dick Hermann
May 6, 2024
Then, as the century turned, along came the Republican Party’s far-right propaganda machine in the form of sleazy outlets and platforms such as Fox News, Newsmax, OANN, Alex Jones’s InfoWars et al., with their unceasing salvos of exaggerations and outright lies. Suddenly, winnable defamation actions surged.
In one of the largest defamation awards in U.S. history, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay approximately $1 billion in actual damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting after claiming incessantly on his InfoWars broadcasts that the massacre was a hoax. This case was followed by Dominion Voting Systems’ suit against Fox News for the barrage of lies Fox spewed about the company and its products after the 2020 election. Fox is on the hook to Dominion for $787 million. Another voting machine company, Smartmatic, is suing Fox for $2.7 billion for similar lies the “fair and balanced” network vomited out to its viewers. Disgraced and soon-to-be-disbarred Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, lost a defamation suit to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of cheating. To the extent he is able to pay the massive damages awarded by the court, he may soon be sleeping on a heating grate in the city he once ran like a medieval fiefdom. Hopefully, the Georgia plaintiffs are standing in line waiting to sue Donald Trump for similar libelous attacks on them. Trump has already been found liable for defaming E. Jean Carroll, whom he sexually assaulted in a department store dressing room, to the tune of $83 million. And, Fox News was just recently alerted that Hunter Biden is poised to sue it for defamation.
The revival of defamation as a viable cause of action has been a bonanza for lawyers. However, it has not been a fun time for right-wing media and its discredited heroes. Notwithstanding, don’t expect these creatures to change their stripes and give up lying. Not gonna happen.
Dick Hermann
May 6, 2024
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