UK Politician Tossed Out Of Office For Lying During Campaign - why don't we have this rule

[txlibdem]

UK Politician Tossed Out Of Parliament For Lying About Opponent During Election

from the wouldn't-that-be-nice... dept

Having just gone through election season here in the US, with all sorts of crazy political claims made in political commercials, it's interesting to see that, over in the UK, one elected member of Parliament, Phil Woolas, recently lost his seat after a court threw out the results of the election because Woolas went "too far in distorting his opponent's positions" (found via Dave Farber). Not only was the election thrown out, and Woolas removed from office, but he's prohibited from serving in Parliament for three years. Harsh.

Of course, while this might seem appealing for folks who are fed up with insane and misleading political advertising, as FactCheck.org notes in the link above, thanks to the First Amendment, we actually say it's legal for a politician to lie in that way.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101116/04001511880/uk-politician-tossed-out-of-parliament-for-lying-about-opponent-during-election.shtml

I wonder how much American politics would improve if every politician knew that lying during a campaign could get you thrown out of office (and banned from holding office for 3 years)...

Note: Thanks goes to this OP for jogging my memory: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x599561

[virgogal]

1. We'd probably have no one left.

[txlibdem]

2. And that would be bad?

Just sayin' :hi:

[tularetom]

3. How could any candidate oppose such a law?

If I were running for public office I would promise to introduce a bill making it a crime to lie about an election opponent, then just sit back and watch my opponent's reaction.

I would also make it a crime for any news agency, print or broadcast, to lie about a candidate for public office, or to carry advertisements that do so.

I seem to remember a court in Florida ruled it was OK for fox news to lie but not a lot of people are aware of it. It would be a hoot to watch politicians and the news media defend their right to lie.

[RC]

4. True.

Scroll down a little over half way, look for Logo on right side.
http://www.timws.com/

Fox News even went to court and won the right to lie to their audience:
"During their appeal, Fox News asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves."
Click here for source of quote http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html
Fox News became the propaganda mouth piece for the White House during George W. Bush's administration. It is the number one source of propaganda for programing the unthinking droids on the extreme right. News it ain't.





http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=2758
Jimmy Carter Gets Fox News
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Posted by Mark on September 20, 2010 at 6:35 pm.

Appearing on the NBC Nightly News, former Pres. Jimmy Carter demonstrated that he still has keen insight into the state of modern media:

Brian Williams: How do you think it came to be that such high numbers of people believe that this American-born Christian President is either foreign born or a Muslim or both?

Pres. Carter: I think the number one factor is Fox News. It’s totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts. And I think their constant hammering away at these false premises about our incumbent President has a major impact on the consciousness of America. A lot of well-meaning people, including many of those in the Tea Party movement, believe what is said in this constant hammering away by Glenn Beck and by others who have no regards for the truth.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

5. ENFORCE THIS, NO MORE REPUBS

THEY WOULD ALL BE FORCED OUT

[txlibdem]

6. There'll be no tears from me!

We'll lose Democrats, too, but I'll take that chance.