I'm waiting for a lawsuit for slander, President Clinton, Madam Secretary,

[Skidmore]

Mr. Berger. Anyone out there willing to take on the Republic Party Lie Machine?

[HereSince1628]

1. Me thinks you are waiting for a bus that ain't scheduled to run.

And the airlines will still want their logos in Disney movies and will run their adds on ABC.

[JoDog]

2. It might be difficult

for them to prove slander in this case. Since they are all public figures, there is an incredible burden of proof on them. The law is constructed so that a citizen can say almost anything she wants about a public figure and be protected under the 1st Amendment. A loophole on that is that a media outlet can be sued by a public figure if the person in question thinks that the outlet knew what they were printing/broadcasting was questionable or false and went ahead and used it anyway. That may come into play here.

It's far more likely that a suit by American Airlines would be successful, or a suit by the American Airlines gate agent in Maine who was involved and is still alive (sadly, the woman who was the AA agent at Logan Airport killed herself sometime after 9/11, and no one can be held accountable for libeling or slandering the dead).

But I only took 1 semester of media law. Any lawyers out there?

[bluestateguy]

3. Not worth it

A lawsuit would likely fall into the lap of a Bush appointed judge who would dismiss it, thus giving the movie more credibility than it deserves. Also, slander is real hard to prove when you are a very public figure. ABC probably skirted a slander case by saying that the movie was a "dramatization".

A lawsuit would only give the movie more publicity and scrutiny, and keep it in the news. Think of the Willy Horton ad in 1988. Very few people actually saw it as a regular ad, but because it was so controversial, it was played over and over again on news, dissected and analyzed. Sure, when we cut through the weeds we found the ad to be misleading and arguably racist, but that kind of stuff gets lost amid the whole debate. Any campaign consultant, political scientist and ad producer will tell you that people remember the charges from the ad, not the facts and the rebuttal. The same thing would happen were a lawsuit to be filed here. We'd be subject to more deconstruction of PT911, and people would remember the charges and accusations, and kind of dismiss the rebuttal and the facts.

PT911 is already becoming yesterday's news. It's ratings were mediocre at best, and its effects were only temporary.

[Skidmore]

4. So will there ever be a time when it is okay to deal a death blow to

this lie machine? What lie is big enough to deserve a response? Not war, not deaths, nothing seems to stop it.

[bluestateguy]

6. Do you really think that a Clinton lawsuit would be a "death blow"?

I think some people here just want to see Clinton sue because it would make them feel good, never mind whether or not it has a chance of success. It makes people feel all nice inside, and that's what important. Clinton's a winner. He wins. He wins because he knows when to fight and how to fight. I trust his judgment. I still remember some people on this board thinking that the Downing Street Memo would be a death blow, or the Jeff Gannon/Guckert scandal, that was supposed to be the beginning of the end for Team Bush. And then when they weren't it was always somebody else's fault: the MSM, Diebold or the DLC.

[KharmaTrain]

5. What Do They Gain?

Do they need money? I don't think so? Is there any way Disney can "rehabilitate" their images they defamed? Short of doing a Lion King with Clinton in the lead role, I don't think so. Time to move on to the next game...be ready for the bigger battle ahead.

From all aspects this movie was a dud. It did poorly in the ratings, caused Disney a promotional black eye and wasted 40 million in the process. I honestly don't see an upside out of this whole fiasco. Unless I see a sudden surge in asshat's approval numbers or a swing in those favoring Repugnians over Democrats in control of Congress, this movie accomplished zero.

Unlike a real movie that can stay on screens for weeks and months on end...then go into distribution on cable and DVD, this mockumentary will be lucky to make it to the cut-down racks at Christian bookstores.

The focus here should be on who financed this crap and if there's more of this shit in the pipeline. If Disney signed off on this manure, what other favors to the GOOP are on the way? Also, let's find out where the $40 million spent on this crap came from. Was it from people like Richard Scaiffe and other right wing money thugs? Were there funds paid that were filtered through the "think tanks" and PACs from Repugnian campaign donors for this stealth production? Let's shine some sunlight on Cunningham, Horowitz and the other slime involved in this "Untitled History Project" and see what other propaganda tricks they have in store.

[Virginia Dare]

7. We still might see it...

the tone of those letters from Clinton's lawyers to ABC didn't sound like a big bluff to me.