Condemned as “Not a Real Person” By Rush Limbaugh, a Small Businesswoman Speaks Out

[SemperEadem]

59. that has not been established

which is her mistakenly assumed to be called a "public figure" when she is not. She was not a public figure until rush dragged her into the public sphere. She wasa private business owner who tweeted by invitation by the president to share her story re: the payroll tax cut and how it benefitted her. Aside from the fact, her private information was put out in the public sphere as a result of limpfuck's big mouth.

A fairly high threshold of public activity is necessary to elevate people to public figure status.

One tweet to Obama's timeline does not equate "a fairly high threshold of public activity". lumpfuck decided that she needed to be dragged by her hair into the middle of the ring to be bludgeoned by his minions for daring to respond to an invite to share a story. And notice that he didn't pick a man; he picked a woman who he obviously feels he can intimidate through his reach not only on airwaves but through those select few who feel compelled to be his champion based upon what he says.

Typically, they must either be:

a public figure, either a public official or any other person pervasively involved in public affairs, or
a limited purpose public figure, meaning those who have "thrust themselves to the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved." A "particularized determination" is required to decide whether a person is a limited purpose public figure, which can be variously interpreted.

Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. This can be also any disparaging statement made by one person about another, which is communicated or published. It is usually a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).[1]

In common law jurisdictions, slander refers to a malicious, false,[2] and defamatory spoken statement or report, while libel refers to any other form of communication such as written words or images.[3] Most jurisdictions allow legal actions, civil and/or criminal, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism. Related to defamation is public disclosure of private facts, which arises where one person reveals information that is not of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. "Unlike (with) libel, truth is not a defense for invasion of privacy."

Any reasonable person would be offended if their private information was put into the public sphere where their life would be placed in jeopardy by someone who has decided that being a terrorist for rush, engaging in his unhinged jihads was his life's goal. Let's not forget how this all came about: Limbaugh's parade of error began this morning when the Obama Administration urged people to tweet messages about what a $40 payroll tax cut would mean to them. One reply was from a twitter account named Scarebaby: "$40 a month means I can pay my Internet bill and keep my tiny small business alive."

So, those who post here an other forums are now all public figures and can be throttled for the amusement of anyone who decides that they want to start a witch hunt about an opinion one holds and there is no recourse through the law for that? I patently disagree with and reject that premise. I don't think her fight will be hard at all: she doesn't have to prove actual malice, although it's there with bright red flags waving all around it. That would have made her case hard.