Trump Is Now Openly Trying to Censor His Critics. He May Succeed.

[StClone]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by JudyM (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Slate

His campaign’s cease and desist letter to broadcast stations is a frightening assault on free speech.

Over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump has made thousands of false, offensive, and damaging claims that could hurt his reelection odds. Democrats plan to use these statements as campaign fodder through the November election. On Wednesday, the Trump campaign adopted a new tactic to neutralize these attacks: It threatened to sue critics of the president in a brazen effort to censor Trump’s opponents into silence. Any real legal action is unlikely to hold up against the First Amendment. But Trump doesn’t need to succeed in court in order to win.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/trump-political-ad-cease-and-desist-letter.html



Read more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/trump-political-ad-cease-and-desist-letter.html

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Why not defy the cease and desist as this is an obvious First Amendment protection case.

[msongs]

1. opinion and analysis nt

[Freethinker65]

2. Get the ad treated like news swiftboat style

The swift boat ad got played for free over and over during prime time news as talking heads discussed it. More paid attention to the ad than the explaining how it was false.

Trump has vowed to sue to keep it off the air which makes it newsworthy to play over and over for free while discussing why Trump is upset about an ad that uses Trump's own words and voice in chronological order during the current pandemic.

[agingdem]

3. this ad is all over the internet

Last edited Thu Mar 26, 2020, 11:54 PM - Edit history (1)

the orange anus and his cease and desist order is like two horny teenagers...grownups telling them they absolutely positively cannot have sex makes hitting the sheets a sure thing..the POS and his sycophantic lawyers can shove their cease and desist order..they can try and can pull the ad off the networks but what's bouncing around the web is forever

[LudwigPastorius]

4. "(Trump) threatened to sue critics of the president in a brazen effort to censor (his) opponents"

Bring it, you scumbags.

ACLU lawyers need the work.

[oldsoftie]

5. This isnt "LBN". But he also wont succeed. Theres nothing wrong with broadcasting his voice.

get over it donnie

[tblue37]

6. He is bluffing. He often sends such cease & desist letters, but he never follows through,

because he fears deposition. He's just hoping to intimidate some people into caving to his demands.

[Talitha]

7. Trump: the boy named Sue.

Damn, this guy is a piece of work!

[Judi Lynn]

8. Will this entire country allow him to become a complete tyrant? Looking very possible. n/t

[lees1975]

9. Rant on, Orange Headed Buffoon

November 3 is coming, the day we are TRUMP FREE AMERICA!

[BobsYourUncle]

17. MATFA--

Make America Trump-Free Again.

[Progressive Jones]

10. I say ignore the letter. Cease and desist letters don't mean shit, anyway. nt

[groundloop]

11. If Bloomberg is sincere about helping Democratic causes maybe he could get involved.....

What would be great is if some deep pocket donors put money into a legal defense fund to help fight and expose these anti-American tactics.

[James48]

12. He just needs to threaten to revoke

The broadcast licenses of those stations airing the ads, and he will get his desired result.

Of course, such a threat would be a felony.

But who cares-it’s just one more.

[keithbvadu2]

18. So that same 43% of republicans would approve a democrat shutting down Fox news?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142128590

“Freedom of the press may be guaranteed in the Constitution. But a plurality of Republicans want to give President Trump the authority to close down certain news outlets, according to a new public opinion survey conducted by Ipsos and provided exclusively to The Daily Beast.”

So that same 43% of republicans would approve a democrat shutting down Fox news?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-poll-43-of-republicans-want-to-give-trump-the-power-to-shut-down-media?via=twitter_page

[dware]

19. Aren't most of those ads being played on Cable?

If so, then they don't have a broadcast license and this threat is a hollow one anyway, the FCC has no authority over Cable or Satellite stations.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Won't work. You can't buy publicity like that

And writers want publicity. A lawsuit will just increase sales.

[hlthe2b]

14. It is legally baseless. They MUST ignore it.

[beachbumbob]

15. If I was a TV station owner, I would say bring it on.

If trump wants to set an example of shutting media critics imagine what a democratic admin could do with Foxnews and rush limbaugh stations.

Its all bluster as usual

[lark]

16. TV stations in red states will just use this as an excuse and demand their money back.

They don't like this to begin with, but with some money triumphed, and now they will cut and run.

[JudyM]

20. Locking

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.