i understand what you're saying and you're probably correct from a legal standpoint (i'm not a lawyer or anything close to it).
but to answer your question, if we assume for the moment that my argument is correct and it is illegal to mislead people in a way that results in injury or death, I think an appropriate action would be on two levels, like many other crimes. Criminally I would think it would be fairly mild like a misdemeanor, with the intention of just getting people to stop doing it. But civilly, if someone was watching TV and saw David Nunes blatantly telling us to disobey guidelines and to go out to a restaurant and someone could prove they contracted the virus because of that specific advice, then I would think there is a case to be made for a civil suit. again i'm not a lawyer.
so indulge me for a moment here:
when people sell snake oil and make false claims about products, it is illegal. that is because you could take their product and not get the real remedy you need to get healthy and you could get sicker or die. or perhaps the snake oil could even get you sick on its own. you said that Nunes speech is not illegal because people can do their own research and watch other TV shows and make an informed decision. Similarly, the victims of the snake oil salesmen can do research and look at other products and studies and decide on their own. It's still illegal to make false claims about products. so if you apply that principle to Nunes/Fox News and other people with an appearance of authority who are publicly claiming (in a time of crisis and confusion mind you) that the threat is not serious and people should continue to go out and mingle, aren't they selling snake oil?
to me the metaphor is that the movie theatre is on fire. everyone is everyone is running for the door. but one asshole is saying there is no fire, it's media hype, and we should stay in the theatre. even if just one person listens to them and dies, just because they are stupid, I would think there would be a liability for the person who said they should stay in there.
just an interesting discussion. I'm not suggesting that Nunes will ever see a day in jail over this... but I have seen some suggest it and that is what got me wondering
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