Why Defamation Matters for the Press and for America

 


 


According to the Pew Research Center  increasing numbers of Americans are losing faith in traditional media. Increasingly, we rely on less trustworthy sources, like internet blogs and talk radio . Identity politics has played a major role in this decline. All but 8% of Pew respondents agreed that made-up news creates either “a great deal” or “some” confusion.

Driving this perception is a shift to audience targeting based on pre-existing political, social and religious biases. This, in turn, has moved much of journalism to the Wild West of the internet. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides safe harbor for online service providers (OSPs), such as Twitter, YouTube and Parler. The results are history.

Contrary to what the act intended, sources, like Kellyanne Conway, can now redefine reality to fit their followers' emotional needs. Despite costly damages awarded parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims, Alex Jones continues to promote outrageous fabrications on behalf of right-wing political causes, such as “Stop the Steal.” Americans must be able to rely on “mainstream media” have a responsibility to expose such deception.

So, what happens when the media, driven by deadlines and overzealous “progressive” crusades, get it wrong? In a trial currently underway, conservative heroine Sarah Palin is suing favorite alt-right target The New York Times for libel.

The Times admits that its editorial linking a Palin ad to the shooting of Representative Gabby Gifford was wrong. It fired editor James Bennet for adding the offending sentences and retracted the error the following day. But Palin insists on damages.

As a public figure, she must prove “actual malice” to overcome the Sullivan Standard, ironically set in a 1964 libel suit against the Times. Palin’s lawyers believe they’ve found several “smoking guns” in Bennet’s previous editorials about her.

The implications for this lie in the very likely appeal of whatever decision the court makes. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have already indicated a desire to overturn Sullivan, thus opening all media, left or right, to a plethora of suits which can only further undermine whatever remaining trust Americans place in them.


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