I won’t even look beyond the first three pages, of Tangerine’s latest failing defamation suit, in South Florida. It is… utterly execrable. [I will note that, in order to avoid even mentioning Trump’s lunatic filing… Hinderaker re-invents US policies in farming communities… as the primary cause of world hunger. I know — crazy pants for certain, but there you have it. I’ll leave that for some other “slow news” night.]
Instead, I will quote at length from a real gem of a filing, from The Onion some years ago:
…The reasonable-reader test gauges whether a statement can reasonably be interpreted as stating actual facts, thereby ensuring that neither the least humorous nor the most credulous audience dictates the boundaries of protected speech. Milkovich v. Lorain J. Co., 497 U.S. 1, 20 (1990); Mink v. Knox, 613 F.3d 995, 1005 (10th Cir. 2010); Moldea v. New York Times Co., 22 F.3d 310, 314 (D.C. Cir. 1994); see also Golb v. Att’y Gen. of N.Y., 870 F.3d 89, 102 (2d Cir. 2017) (“[A] parody enjoys First Amendment protection notwithstanding that not everybody will get the joke.”)….
This Court has traditionally been hesitant to chill speech, and the prospect of chilling parody by imprisoning its practitioners provides equal cause for caution. “What may be difficult to communicate or understand when factually reported may be poignant and powerful if offered in satire.” Rogers v. Grimaldi, 695 F. Supp. 112, 123 (S.D.N.Y. 1988), aff ’d 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989). “ ‘[T]he last thing we need, the last thing the First Amendment will tolerate, is a law that lets public figures keep people from mocking them.’ ”Cardtoons, L.C. v. Major League Baseball Players Ass’n, 95 F.3d 959, 972–73 (10th Cir. 1996) (quoting White v. Samsung Elecs. Am., Inc., 989 F.2d 1512, 1519 (9th Cir. 1993) (Kozinski, J., dissenting)).
The Onion intends to continue its socially valuable role bringing the disinfectant of sunlight into the halls of power. See Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 67 (1976) (quoting Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It 62 (National Home Library Foundation ed. 1933)). And it would vastly prefer that sunlight not to be measured out to its writers in 15-minute increments in an exercise yard….
In sum, CNN cannot libel even Tangerine-hued garbage… simply by observing (accurately, I might add) that… it stinks.
Powerline Lies... 