Dozens of Republican officials and influential conservatives, including former president George W. Bush, rushed to eulogize Limbaugh after news of his death broke. View the discussion thread. Skip to main content. Some users surfaced video of Limbaugh using the "N-word" with an "a" on the end of the word on his radio show and claiming "it's not racist. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. This article is from the archive of our partner.
I think that most women would say that the line is well below Then again, I wouldn't really call any woman a slut unless it was a term of endearment — some women giggle when you call them that. I just don't make value judgments about someone's sexuality. If a woman or a man is promiscuous and they are happy, they can be a slut if they want or not. In other words, "slut" is properly regarded as little more than a statement of opinion. But see Bryson , N. Supp at ; Smith , So.
However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries, but on the competition of other ideas. But there is no constitutional value in false statements of fact. Lorain Journal Co. McCabe v. Rattiner, F. While some connotations of the word may encompass criminal behavior, others do not. Weiss, F. As such, a term with such diffuse and subjective meaning, colored and even defined by the reader's life experiences, is incapable of precise definition.
Like "short," "ugly" or "fat," slut is a word that is given its meaning by those who use it — a fact that the participants of SlutWalks around the world in would be quick to cite.
Absent something really bizarre happening in Court, I can't see a court, in this day and age, allowing a defamation claim based on the term "slut. This incident is unfortunate for those on the Left who have, at least since , considered their side of the aisle to be the place where free speech can feel safe and secure.
It has exposed the liberal and academic Left to be as hypocritical and as bad as the dirty Right wing when it comes to free speech. Sandra Fluke's statements were worthy of some criticism, and I lobbed some of my own. Rush Limbaugh could have done a much better job of criticizing Ms.
But, the fact is that those on the left, defamation lawyers trolling for clients, and Rush Limbaugh haters alike have set aside their desire to understand or support free expression in a hysterical pile-on of the prick from Palm Beach. They are all wrong. They are not only wrong on the law, but they are also morally wrong because someone, somewhere out there is listening to them — and will believe that when someone gets butthurt, that they are a victim, and that someone has to pay for their thin-skinned indignation in court.
All right, we've had to remove a couple of comments now that devolved into ad hominem attacks on other individual posters. As the note at the top of this post said, the CMLP reserves the right to delete comments that we, in our sole discretion, decide violate our Terms of Use, including the following terms from our Community and Commenting Guidelines:.
This discussion has apparently reached the end of its useful life, and as such we are ending it now. Subscribe to our content! Follow us on Twitter. We are looking for contributing authors with expertise in media law, intellectual property, First Amendment, and other related fields to join us as guest bloggers.
If you are interested, please contact us for more details. Skip to main content. Welcome to the website of the Digital Media Law Project.
Due to popular demand the Berkman Klein Center is keeping the website online, but please note that the website and its contents are no longer being updated. Please check any information you find here for accuracy and completeness. Sandra Fluke is a public figure When you purposely inject yourself into public debate, you lose your status as a "just minding my own business" private citizen. The talk radio host assured listeners that he doesn't hate women and asked his critics to "lighten up.
At the hearing where Fluke originally spoke about the issue, she argued women should have free access to contraceptives, complaining that Georgetown, a Catholic university, won't cover it for her. Following her comments, Limbaugh lashed out on Wednesday, when the whole controversy began. 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. Limbaugh later suggested that in exchange for contraceptives paid for by others, Fluke should produce a sex tape.
Limbaugh, though, did not tone down the rhetoric: "It's no different than if somebody that I don't know knocked on my door and said, 'You know what?
I'm outta money. I can't afford birth control pills, and I'm supposed to have sex with three guys tonight. Two advertisers--Sleep Train and Select Comfort--have pulled their advertising from Limbaugh's radio show.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Select Comfort said Limbaugh's commentary "does not align with our values.
0コメント