Did you know the media can legally lie?
Pure Liberal spew aimed at denouncing Fox News. Here's the truth: All media makes mistakes. In fact, every time that I've known about a story, the media got parts of it wrong. The law takes into account the fact that the media is not always able to present the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so they give them a little leeway ~ rather than prosecuting our entire news and information system. Even scientific theory is proven wrong from time to time, but as you see, the Feds don't come down on the makers of disproven science documentaries. We all take it with a grain of salt. In the origins of the lie that Fox went to court to get license to lie, a certain Fox reporter had put together a story that was aimed at destroying a particular business. The story was pure speculation, but their reporter targeted individual businesses with it and meant to ruin them completely. Fox told the reporter they would not run the story as it was, and as that reporter complained, they re-wrote the story and forced the reporter to air it that way. Having had a battle with one of their employees, Fox fired the reporter who begrudgingly spent the following weeks researching every tiny thing that Fox put into the re-write. What the now ex-reporter found was that some of the information, which was irrelevant to the story, was flawed. The ex-reporter took Fox News to court, suing them for over a million dollars. The basis of the suit was that the reporter had wanted to air speculation that would ruin people, and Fox wouldn't have it ~ thus, Fox was responsible for 100% accuracy. The court found it absurd and ruled in Fox's favor based on the fact that a lot of our news is flawed or even wrong. The alternative is prosecuting our national media. Every channel and every little news paper would be accountable for 100% accuracy, and in this particular story, the information was irrelevant. We all expect the news to be accurate. We all know that sometimes it isn't.
Do media outlets lie, and if so, how is it legal?
Not all lying by the media is legal: if a journalist lies about someone, and the lie raises to the level of libel, then the journalist and the news organization can be sued and lose (although they usually win on appeal). If the media plagiarize from others’ copyrighted material (i.e. don’t identify the source and don’t get permission to reprint/rebroadcast), which is a lie of sorts, the media can lose a copyright lawsuit. All other lying in the news/editorial content of news media is legal (advertising is another story; see below). Why? In the US because of the First Amendment, which gives expansive rights of free expression to everyone: you, me, media, and everyone else. (Courts have been very hesitant to give media any First Amendment rights that the rest of us don’t have, and so far, there are extremely few exceptions, such as shield laws.) So if it were illegal for the media to lie, it would be illegal for you and me to lie. But it’s only illegal for you and me to lie in limited circumstances, such as fraud in a business transaction (because that falls under contract law and criminal law, not constitutional law). So while you might think that a journalist who lies is committing fraud of some sort, the law does not say that (again, see First Amendment).
Should lying by the mass media be legal?
“Should lying by the mass media be legal?Given the influence of the media on hundreds of millions and even billions of human beings should the media be allowed to lie to the public at large?Is that not a form of "Big Brother" brain washing the masses and controlling what humans think and how they act?The mass media is owned and sponsored and managed by very few human beings.”And your alternative would be…. ?If the alternative is to make it illegal, then you have just jumped from the pan into the fire. Those quotation marks you put around “Big Brother” may be removed, because that is exactly who would be deciding what was a lie and what was not. The state would have tremendous reason to clamp down on news it doesn’t like, and call it lies - it does that today, but it has no power of enforcement.I think that the only power effective against a bad man with a printing press is a good man with a printing press. Or a website. It is indeed a problem that the press has been consolidated over the years, but I think it is a bigger problem that so few people seek out voices contrary to their own views. We mostly want to hear people tell us what we already believe to be true. “Everything else is a lie”And so we never learn anything.
Is it illegal for a married man to lie about being married,give u a std,live with u for a year & leave u prego?
i was with my fiance for a year, he said he was divorced. when i found out i was pregnant and he has given me a sti that he and his wife knew about for 11 yrs that was never mentioned to me.. i found out i had at the time of finding out i was pregnant. i am about to deliver our baby and wish to keep him away from us. do i have any advantage cause of what hes done or can i persue him in court for the damage hes caused?
Is it legal to lie on the NEWS?
It depends. From a legal perspective, there's nothing special about journalists, at least in this context. So if I want to tell someone that I was abducted by aliens, it doesn't matter whether that person is my neighbor or a reporter for the news at 11:00. I may be crazy or a jerk, but I haven't done anything illegal.On the other hand, defamation is illegal. Generally speaking, this happens when someone publishes false information that was harmful to someone else. These laws vary significantly, but as a general matter, public figures are entitled to less protection than ordinary, private citizens. Typically, when dealing with public figures, the statements in question must not just be false, but knowingly or recklessly false, whereas mere negligence may be sufficient for private citizens. This prevents me from going on the news and accusing a neighbor I don't like of being a registered sex offender, or suggesting, without evidence, that my congressional representative is a thief.There's also the special case of people in certain regulated professions, such as law or finance. Spreading lies about a pending legal matter could have professional consequences for a lawyer, just as an executive trying to pump his company's stock could face trouble for lying on CNBC. But such rules would apply generally to a profession or industry--they would have nothing to do specifically with the news.
Did Brett Kavanaugh lie about drinking legally? Some media report that Maryland had changed the legal drinking age to 21 by the time he was 17.
Yes. Some would call it a lie by omission. But, it was a very deliberate lie.A repeated lie.Seven months before Kavanaugh turned 18, the state of Maryland raised the drinking age for the state from 18 to 21.Kavanaugh: “The drinking age, as I noted, was 18, so the seniors were legal. Senior year in high school, people were legal to drink ... Sometimes probably had too many beers.”Kavanaugh: “Yes, there were parties, and yes, the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were and had beer there.”Kavanaugh’s bio, in his yearbook, which he personally wrote, he was a member of the “Keg City Club (treasurer) — 100 Kegs or Bust.”Kavanaugh could not drink legally at any time when he was in high school. Despite his deceptive lies. [“The drinking age, as I noted, was 18, so the seniors were legal…” “yes, the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were 18, and had beer there.”]In fact, Kavanaugh could not legally drink until he was midway through his junior year in college.Yes. Kavanaugh was lying.About that, and several other issues.
Which countries can the media legally lie besides the US?
The media can and does legally lie in all the countries that have state control of the media: North Korea, China, Russia, etc.There are limitations of American media lying in the form of libel and slander laws. What is not legal is prior restraint; that is preventing the publishing or broadcasting of anything. The theory is that sunlight is an effective disinfective and that restrictions on what can be printed or said creates way more problems than it solves.
In this world of biased media how could somebody know the real truth of events?
Question: In this world of biased media how could somebody know the real truth of events?Answer: That is exactly my thought as well! We can’t.I was watching American PBS during the days of largest Israel settlement expansion (which is illegal under UN resolution) in West Gaza in the past 20 years. There was not a single minute, not a single mention of it. Instead I have to go to RT America (Russian) or Al-Jazeera.Media is always biased. Nothing new in that. But the latest trend is the “fake news”; which is outright lies and slanders pretending to be objective news.Things like “Hillary killed 10 people” makes me wonder… Really? Do you really think that? Except for Drone strikes and CIA assassination, do you really think that someone can get away with 10 murders? Or “Bush masterminded 9/11”… In the past this would fall under “Crackpot Conspiracy Theories”.I am growing so skeptical now that I find it hard to believe anything categorized under “News”.Those who controls the media controls Democracy. It is paramount that independent journalism must be allowed to survive, perhaps via public funding [1]. There is a trend these days for Billionaire owners to prop up ailing newspaper [2]. When everything else fail, public fund raising may be an option [3].The reality is that independent objective journalism is not profitable. It is expensive. It is not partisan, so it is not exciting. Politics is like Superbowl in America. Entertainment for jokes and laugh. Public perception overrides actual governing of the country. [4]The market demanded entertainment, and the law declared that truth is optional [5]. Democracy is a public endeavor, it must be supported by public funding.[1] Mark Scott: ABC is a public broadcaster, not a state broadcaster[2] How Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reinvented the Washington Post, the 140-year old newspaper he bought for $250 million - Business Insider[3] Supporters of the Guardian | The Guardian Members[4] Why Obama Vetoed the 9/11 Lawsuit Bill[5] 11. The Media Can Legally Lie - Top 25 of 2005