Irony is dead: Limbaugh threatens legal action over false statements

[babylonsister]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200910140027


Irony is dead: Limbaugh threatens legal action over false statements

October 14, 2009 3:17 pm ET by Eric Boehlert


Actually, the fact-free talker is threatening to sue journalists who report what Limbaugh claims are falsehoods regarding him. Hmm, suddenly, Limbaugh doesn't like being on the other end of misinformation? Suddenly he's demanding folks back up and source all their information, in a way that he almost never does?

Good to know.

Meanwhile, is this a precedent Limbaugh really wants to create for his show? Does the chronic misinformer really want to start a movement where those who are demeaned by his lies are encouraged to contract their attorneys and threaten legal action against the host until he retracts his statements. (If so, Limbaugh's gonna have to put more lawyers on retainer.)

I love how Limbaugh reflexively reaches for the phone to call his lawyers when people say things about him that might be inaccurate. But when Limbaugh spends hour after hour behind the microphone concocting whatever version of reality strikes him that day, all that misinformation is protected by the right-wing notion of free speech.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. This should be interesting.

[lpbk2713]

2. Is he looking for the ACLU to represent him again?

Limbaugh is the indisputable King of all Douchebags.






WAAAH!! No fair!!

[edbermac]

He'll be as successful as O'Lielly suing Al Franken.

Sue them, Rush...PLEASE!! :rofl:

[gateley]

6. Yeah, I say DO IT! Open the door for countless lawsuits which actually have legs! nt

[johnnie]

3. Poor rush

Stupid fuck.

[GCP]

4. Maybe the Jeff Christie stuff will come out

:evilgrin:

[NewJeffCT]

5. Let me get this right

he is threatening to sue people who truthfully point out his lies? Let me guess - he's also for tort reform and will denounce frivolous lawsuits.

:crazy: :silly: :wtf:

[Lint Head]

7. This SOB needs to be investigated regarding

pedophilia.
http://pssht.com/biography/rush_limbaugh.html

[NewJeffCT]

8. Maybe he joined with Glen Beck

in raping & murdering a young girl in 1990?

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. Does he know the legal definition of discovery? nt

[kestrel91316]

10. Is the same fat pig named Limbaugh who, last I heard, was off to the Dominican

Republic to illegally fuck little boys while taking Viagra to great excess, along with Oxycontin???

[corpseratemedia]

11. one little viagra

one poor third world child-sex haven,

so much trouble.

[MineralMan]

12. Bring it, Rush! Bring it!

It's all on YouTube.

[zbdent]

13. Hope that he wins his case and thus opens his ass (sorry for the visual) up for

everybody that he lied about to come forward ...

remember, he is not a journalist, he keeps reminding us he's an entertainer and thus shouldn't be able to protect his sources ... if they were anything other than emissions from his own ass ...

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. I'd love for this to go to trial.

If I were the defense attorney, my closing argument would be an endless compilation of every lie he's ever told about someone, and nothing more.

[struggle4progress]

15. He's a public figure: I think he'd need to establish both falsehood and malice

and he'd need to show harm

Given his long history of ugly comments, he can scarcely argue that malice motivates a reporter who reports Limbaugh's uttered yet another nasty racist remark and he can scarcely claim damage to his reputation

If he goes to court, he might get $1 in damages -- but I doubt it

[Swamp Rat]

16. BRING IT ON CHILD-FUCKER!!!!

[Festivito]

17. If we sue Rush, he's entertaining, so we cant. If he sues US, he's not?

Suddenly he's not an entertainer. Why does it matter to misrepresent an entertainer's act. Is that some sort of special national security issue.

[sakabatou]

18. *boom* MY IRONY METER!

[Orsino]

19. Discovery phase should be entertaining.

Rush will have to prove he can identify a falsehood.

[TexasObserver]

20. How could anyone ever libel that slovenly tub of bad news?

It's not possible to harm him, and the truth is always a defense.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. I thought yesterday he told Jamie Gangel he didn't care what others thought about him

I guess that was yesterday's message.