elswhere ( see the post titled "future?" ) i have discussed the utility something akin to the alien and sediton act of 1798 would have for the forthcoming second trump adminstration and looking at the news ( not my first choice for a way to spend the day, however reality and a need to be grounded in events impinges..that said i have also elsewhere delved into my deep distrust of any news media and its ability to be anything like objective...unfiltered news, like privacy, is nonexistant ) it seems to me they have gained the same insight...
libel lawsuits are the opening gambit in the approach..."if you don't shut up about our defficiencies in terms of ability to actually engage in'public service' we will sue for libel so make sure you have the resources to defend yourself"...intimidation in a word...
the n y times article goes on to say that the supreme court has set a "high bar" which holds that "plaintiffs must prove that a publisher knew a defamatroy statment was false or acted with reckless disregard for its accuracy" and that this precedent is something that "...mr. trump and some of his allies want to see weakened or overturned..." which could be accomplished by one of those specious libel suits reaching a somewhat biased ( and fairly corrupt in some cases ) supreme court...or through legislation in a republican controlled congress ( which could also easily be called biased as the outsiders and disrupters become the majority )...at least a return to a blackstone concept of "no prior restraint"...in other words, " we will not stop you from printing or airing the story but will sue the bejesus out of you after you do because libel is anything negative factual or not"...i am inclined to think they will become deeply subjective in defining "libel" if not "sedition"...british common law as a benchmark...i can see editors and news producers and journalists in the dock...the benjamin franklin baches, william duanes, and james thompson callenders of the opposition media prosecuted while the willam cobbetts at fox cackle...on 27 july 1798 john adams was passing through newark new jersey on his way to his home...blanks were being fired from cannons to salute him..."luther baldwin happened to be coming towards john burnet's dram-shop, a person that was there [brown clark] says to luther, there goes the president and they are firing at his ass, luther, a little merry, replies, that he did not care if they fired through his ass. then exclaims the dram seller that is sedition." ( crimina dissent:prosecutions under the alien and sedition acts of 1798 p.132 ) the bartender was a federalist who turned them in and both were prosecuted...baldwin was fined $150 plus court costs and clark was fined $50 and court costs...the prosecutions reached deep...and may reach as deep again.
