Trump suggests Senate Intel Committee should investigate U.S. news media

Dittohead not! said:

Unless the Russian investigation really blows up in his face, until 2020.




Nearly half of the American electorate, apparently. Scary, isn't it? It's no wonder so many deny evolution and AGW if there are so many dumb enough to believe Trump's rants.




You forgot millions of illegals voting for Hillary and thousands of Muslims celebrating in the streets of New Jersey... he saw that you know.



Actually, I'm not so sure about that one. PT Barnum wasn't the gullible one after all. He understood well how to fool the people, just like, well, you know.

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And you can be sure Mueller is slow walking it to dump it on Trump's 2020 election as payback to the democrats.

Dittohead not! said:

A couple of shark attacks were sensationalized in order to sell air time/ advertising. The attacks did happen. How is that fake?

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There were less shark attacks, they sold it as more. It affected shore communities and summer communities along the coast over lying about the nature of the attacks.

ReverendHellh0und said:

There were less shark attacks, they sold it as more. It affected shore communities and summer communities along the coast over lying about the nature of the attacks.

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2001 (the year in question) was either the #1 or tied for #2 year for the number of shark attacks in the US, depending on your source. Either way, there weren't such a small number of attacks, or even fewer attacks than other years, to justify your assertion of "less shark attacks".

#thestrugglewasreal

MaggieD said:

It should not.

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We have statutory and caselaw about defamation/slander to cover damaging malicious lies. But that refers to the civil arena.



President Trump urged the Senate Intelligence Committee to switch its focus from Russian meddling in the 2016 election to investigating “fake news” in the U.S.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-su...-115901011.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_11

Whether or not people may be willing to admit it, it's obvious that this is rather more; he's trying to cow the media with a threat to use the federal government to attack it, which goes well beyond existing slander/libel law. Thing is....it won't work.

Mr Person said:

We have statutory and caselaw about defamation/slander to cover damaging malicious lies. But that refers to the civil arena.



President Trump urged the Senate Intelligence Committee to switch its focus from Russian meddling in the 2016 election to investigating “fake news” in the U.S.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-su...-115901011.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_11

Whether or not people may be willing to admit it, it's obvious that this is rather more; he's trying to cow the media with a threat to use the federal government to attack it, which goes well beyond existing slander/libel law. Thing is....it won't work.

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Well then why are liberals spinnng themselves into the ground over it?

aAnd there is certainly precedent. Otherwise why investigate Russian ads on Facebook?

MaggieD said:

Well then why are liberals spinnng themselves into the ground over it?

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I don't see people "spinning themselves into the ground", but if they were, it is probably because one of the first things would-be tyrranical governments do is to use government to control the media. You know, like the claimed basis right wingers and Trump supporters have for throwing melt-down tantrums on the gun control front if someone so much as mentions the fact that nobody needs 1,000 rounds to defend against a burglar in their home.

:shrug:





But how about a straight discussion, rather than deflecting by attacking the perceived "other side"?

Your man is suggesting use of government to control media reporting or, at the very least, influence it with threats of investigation.

MaggieD said:

And there is certainly precedent. Otherwise why investigate Russian ads on Facebook?

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Probably because that isn't precedent because it is completely different. That's about looking into the methods by which Russia attempts to influence foreign elections, including our own. That isn't use of government investigations or threats to use them, to cow media into reporting things Trump doesn't want to hear. You know that.

Mr Person said:

I don't see people "spinning themselves into the ground", but if they were, it is probably because one of the first things would-be tyrranical governments do is to use government to control the media. You know, like the claimed basis right wingers and Trump supporters have for throwing melt-down tantrums on the gun control front if someone so much as mentions the fact that nobody needs 1,000 rounds to defend against a burglar in their home.

:shrug:

But how about a straight discussion, rather than deflecting by attacking the perceived "other side"?

Your man is suggesting use of government to control media reporting or, at the very least, influence it with threats of investigation.

Probably because that isn't precedent because it is completely different. That's about looking into the methods by which Russia attempts to influence foreign elections, including our own. That isn't use of government investigations or threats to use them, to cow media into reporting things Trump doesn't want to hear. You know that.

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First, I admit there are rabid gun owners on this site who do exactly as you describe.

Congress is investigating certain news media. That’s the precedent that has already been set. The purpose hardly matters.

MaggieD said:

First, I admit there are rabid gun owners on this site who do exactly as you describe.

Congress is investigating certain news media. That’s the precedent that has already been set. The purpose hardly matters.

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Well, you say the purpose hardly matters but you aren't arguing or debating why that is supposedly the case.

I say it matters. The purpose of threatening the U.S. media with investigations is to gain state influence over what the media reports. The purpose of investigating Russian attempts to influence our election process is to figure out how to stop Russian influence in our election process, thereby protecting the very core of our Democratic process.

But it's not just the purpose in play. It's the mechanism. With regard to the Russia business, they aren't threatening to punish U.S. citizens for reposting false memes or anything like that. They're simply trying to figure out what exactly Russia did, how it did it, and whether there are legitimate means of preventing it in the future.

The mechanism of the media threats is simply: use fear of state harassment to influence what gets reported.



They are very different things. And while I don't think Trump would actually get away with trying to punish the media, it's certainly a warning signal (not that we needed another) that he is prepared to use authoritarian methods to bully people. That might have played fair in business, but it's not fair and can easily become unconstitutional if he's using the power of government to do it.

If the media slanders someone, it can be sued.

If a media outlet is careless, other media outlets can point it out. These days, we have a ton of media from all sides. There is no legitimate reason to threaten government policing of the media in this manner.