Limbaugh attempts to walk-back "she's a slut and prostitute" comment...instead digs deeper ditch

[maxrandb]

Caught a little of the "pig-boy" while getting lunch. Apparently, he's getting some blowback (and rightfully so) resutling from his slander and defamation of a private citizen of these United States.

Instead of apologizing and admitting to his assholishness, he attempted to muster some defense for what is indefensible.

It was actually comical as he tried to wrap his warped mind around how he was "right" in describing this PRIVATE UNITED STATES CITIZEN as a "slut and a prostitute".

If this doesn't result in this "asspickle" being dragged into a Civil court and getting "some sense sued into him", then I don't know what will!

I'll write the first check to the legal fund, just let me know where to send it. This shitstain has been on the underwear of America for way too long.

We'd better hury though. Since wife #4 married him just to bankroll her idiotic iced-tea company, I'm betting she's ready to pocket a few million in a nice settlement.

[HockeyMom]

1. Linbaugh is calling the vast majority of WIVES sluts

How many women in the 21st Century are VIRGINS when they marry? How many of them have sex with their future husbands?

Linpballs you are just calling ALL WOMEN sluts. Because YOU are a pig, you need to transfer your feelings towards women.

[Initech]

10. How is it that anti-woman POS has had four wives...

FOUR!!!!!

And there's guys like me who can't get a date to save their lives? I don't get it...

[Bandit]

15. It's called money....lots and lots of money

[cthulu2016]

2. She's not a "private citizen"

Since the OP is about defamation and makes a big point of her being a "PRIVATE UNITED STATES CITIZEN," I assume the OP is drawing a distinction.

If there is a distinction to be drawn then she is clearly a public figure. The whole point if her story is her trying to appear before Congress so she was not plucked from obscurity.

Limbaugh's comments were perhaps the lowest utterance I have ever encountered... just the worst.

But the bottom line is that Limbaugh was giving his opinion of a person in the news and we all have the unexceptional right of stating our opinion of people in the news and that is just what it is.

Limbaugh did not even make any real-world allegations. He just said some hateful shit. Name-calling. He did not claim that she is actually employed as a prostitute, for instance.

Very few things a person can say are actionable and this stuff is not even close.

They are, however, about the most apalling comments I've ever heard.

[randome]

4. I don't know.

I don't think that getting reported in the news is the same as being a public person. Otherwise, every wedding announcement would make both bride and groom fair game.

[dsc]

12. Yes it is

This has happened to numerous people. One of the more famous was a Mr. Diddle who saved Gerald Ford from one of his assassins and was then outed by the San Francisco Examaner.

[Sparkly]

5. Of course she is a private citizen!

Good grief! He didn't even get her name right.

Anybody can sue -- it's whether or not they'd win that's the question.

Here's what Limbaugh said:

[div class = "excerpt"]LIMBAUGH: What does it say about the college coed Susan Fluke [sic], who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.

She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps.

The johns, that's right. We would be the johns -- no! We're not the johns. Well -- yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word.

OK, so, she's not a slut. She's round-heeled. I take it back.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201202290008

(Today's he's saying he'll buy all the women of Georgetown University as much aspirin as they want to put between their knees. )

[bullwinkle428]

17. I'm wondering if he deliberately used the wrong name as a way to legally cover his ass.

[noiretextatique]

18. not only is he an asshole, he is a liar

and a filthy shit-eating parasite.

[Bake]

19. Nope, for defamation purposes

Shes a public figure. She became one when she went to testify to Congress and then went on tv.

Bake, Esq.

[Sparkly]

20. Hmm...

"...a personage of great public interest or familiarity like a government official, politician, celebrity, business leader, movie star, or sports hero."
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Public+Figure

A person can also become a "limited public figure" by engaging in actions which generate publicity within a narrow area of interest. For example, a woman named Terry Rakolta was offended by the Fox Television show, Married With Children, and wrote letters to the show's advertisers to try to get them to stop their support for the show. As a result of her actions, Ms. Rakolta became the target of jokes in a wide variety of settings. As these jokes remained within the confines of her public conduct, typically making fun of her as being prudish or censorious, they were protected by Ms. Rakolta's status as a "limited public figure".
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation.html

To begin with, a fairly high threshold of public activity is necessary to elevate a person to public figure status... and, as to those who are not pervasively involved in public affairs, they must have "thrust themselves to the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved" to be considered a "limited purpose" public figure.
http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/p117.htm

I don't think testifying made her a household name; MAYBE a "limited public figure" but even that seems like a stretch.

[Bake]

22. Very definitely a limited public figure

Limbaugh's venom, as vile and despicable as it was, was more or less about the subject matter about which she is in the spotlight. Hence, it's not actionable LEGALLY.

Now, if she were my daughter, I'd personally introduce that pig Limbaugh to my two friends, Mr. Smith and ...

Bake

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. If she is a public figure (which I doubt), she would have to prove "actual malice".

I'd say everything Rush says comes under the category of "actual malice".


Yes I am a lawyer but I don't play one on TV like Spader.

[madokie]

3. Rush limbaugh is stupid

not to mention bat shit crazy

[deutsey]

6. Limbaugh is a bitter, blubbering ball of hate and ignorance.

Why he's still around spewing his puss-tinged venom into the collective consciousness of humanity remains a mystery to me.

[maxrandb]

7. If I could

I'd coordinate an "Occupy AM Radio" movement and protest, not at Clear Channel, but at all the little local AM afiliates that give these guy a forum to spew his bile.

Limbaugh and Corporate Radio don't give a fuck. He's could be losing money, and he'd still have some Koch Brother asshat bankrolling him, but have 50-100 people camp out at WNIS in Norfolk, VA??? Someone might take notice.

[chaplainM]

8. I can solve that mystery

Limbaugh has a lot of listeners, and a lot of sponsors pay to advertise to those listeners.

[deutsey]

9. It's the "lot of listeners" that's the mystery to me

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. That's slander per se; defamatory on its face.

One of the categories of slander per se is "imputation of unchastity in a woman".

In slander per se, damages are presumed and do not have to be proven.



I am a lawyer but I do not play one on tv, unlike Spader.

[Monk06]

23. Trouble is Susan Fluke is not going to sue. She knows there is no advantage to interupting her

studies to become a cause celebre. Better to move on to better things than tilt at Limbaugh's windmill.
She is definitely going to get a lot of attention after graduating if she is in the top ten percentile.

[Quantess]

14. I bet he thinks boys in the Domincan Republic are sluts, too.

Boom!

[area51]

21. +1

Better a "slut" and a "prostitute" (which he also is for having sex outside of marriage, using his definition), than a pedophile.

[erinlough]

16. May he and Breitbart meet in a common place.....soon.

His life should prohibit him from EVER criticizing anyone about their choices. He is a pig. What is so disgusting is that the creepy tea baggers in my area of Michigan will repeat this sewage.