Serious question: Is it possible to sue someone for libel for false statements in a campaign-ad?

Link to tweet

That campaign-ad is nothing but a bunch of lies, intended to smear Joe Biden's reputation.

Serious question: Is it possible to sue Trump for libel over this ad?

1. The Burisma-investigation started before Shokin became prosecutor-general. He inherited that investigation, but it went nowhere under his leadership as well. The investigation had been dormant for one year already when Shokin was fired.

2. Shokin was well-known to be corrupt. The ukrainian people despised him.

3. The US government, several european governments and the IMF wanted Shokin gone for not cracking down on corruption. Biden was the one who pressured the ukrainian government into finally firing Shokin.

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5 replies	Author	Time	Post
Serious question: Is it possible to sue someone for libel for false statements in a campaign-ad? (Original post)	DetlefK	Sep 2019	OP
You can sue for anything, but you probably won't win.	The Velveteen Ocelot	Sep 2019	#1
Zelenskyy... Actually last time I traveled to the United States .. I stayed at the Trump Tower.	struggle4progress	Sep 2019	#2
I think there used to be an exemption for political commercials on TV-	dawg day	Sep 2019	#3
Yes but it's a horrendous political strategy	unblock	Sep 2019	#4
We need to find a way to curb swiftboating. Maybe instead of a group just slipping an ad onto	Karadeniz	Sep 2019	#5

Response to DetlefK (Original post)

Sat Sep 28, 2019, 04:25 PM

The Velveteen Ocelot (106,837 posts)

1. You can sue for anything, but you probably won't win.

https://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/suing-over-false-political-advertising/

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Response to DetlefK (Original post)

Sat Sep 28, 2019, 04:34 PM

struggle4progress (114,734 posts)

2. Zelenskyy... Actually last time I traveled to the United States .. I stayed at the Trump Tower.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-call/index.html

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Response to DetlefK (Original post)

Sat Sep 28, 2019, 04:39 PM

dawg day (7,947 posts)

3. I think there used to be an exemption for political commercials on TV-

The JB Stoner case. This was one of the Birmingham Bethel church bombers-- horrible man. Ran for senate or governor, and he had racist ads that the local TV stations naturally didn't want to run. The FCC said that political ads were absolutely protected and that because TV was regulated (the country owns the airwaves), the stations had to abide by this.

Most of the stations I think would run a disclaimer before and after.

But everything is different now. Only the official ads from the candidate get the protection, I think, but now there are ads by PACs and it's hard to know who is responsible. Plus network TV is a pretty unimportant outlet for ads now. I'm just not sure how much of this is still relevant given the quite unregulated broadcasting industry now.

Anyway, I think there might be some exemption also about libel in a political ad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=nq6QBFFfDSk

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Response to DetlefK (Original post)

Sat Sep 28, 2019, 05:57 PM

unblock (51,287 posts)

4. Yes but it's a horrendous political strategy

It's hard in general to win a defamation case and they allow a lot more when you're famous and probably even more when you're in politics.

Then if you lose the case, even if on a technicality, people will assume the accusation is now verified.

Hell, even if you win, what's the point? Maybe he has to fork over some cash to compensate. Big deal, the political damage is done long before the case is resolved.

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Response to DetlefK (Original post)

Sat Sep 28, 2019, 07:27 PM

Karadeniz (19,054 posts)

5. We need to find a way to curb swiftboating. Maybe instead of a group just slipping an ad onto

The airwaves, the ad must first be submitted to an ethics/truth panel. For example, personal attacks could be scrutinized. An ad with demonstrably false facts...such as Trump's latest Biden bomb which is provably false...would not receive an ok. Freedom of speech is always helpful to those who most abuse it. We need to address these times of mass disinformation.

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