Saturday, October 17, 2009 :::
Rush Limbaugh was in discussions as part of a group bidding to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams, but was deemed too controversial and dropped. A few aspects of this interested me; for one thing, Limbaugh is not remotely far enough out of the mainstream to be considered anathema.
More interesting is that even his opponents don't seem to think he's actually vile enough to exclude, as they had to make up implausible quotes to put in his mouth. CNN, which had fact-checked Saturday Night Live the week before, reported one of these "quotes" as fact. Jonathan Adler speculates whether CNN's behavior is sufficiently egregious for Limbaugh to have a case for defamation. It seems to me that if "reckless disregard for the truth" applies to anything, it would have to apply here. On the other hand, I'm not sure he can demonstrate any economic damages. On the gripping hand, if a show-man sued an alleged news organization for "reporting" something that the editor of a student newspaper would have sent back, who do you think would be more interested in a quiet, pre-trial settlement?Labels: CNN, IANAL, lies, NFL, Rush Limbaugh
::: posted by Steven at 10:55 PM
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