Fake News for Big Brother
Tim May
timcmay at got.net
Tue Apr 29 10:57:44 PDT 2003
On Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at 07:51 AM, Sunder wrote:
>> http://www.sierratimes.com/03/02/28/arpubmg022803.htm
>>
>> On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely
>> nothing illegal about
>> lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press
>> organization.
>
> Ok fine, but what about the old saw that you can't lie to any law
> enforcement types? Are we to assume that no Law Enforcement Officer
> ever
> watches Fox News?
>
> By extension, does that mean any member of the media may lie to a Law
> Enforcement Officer?
>
> If so, why does does Fox get to lie, and Joe Spudweiser can't?
>
> Ok, what if Joe Spudwiser has his own neighborhood newspaper?
>
>
> Can't have it both ways. Then again, in this "envrionment" nothing
> makes
> sense other than to assume that everyone is lying.
The "making false statements to officers" bit is only about Official
Investigations.
It doesn't cover lying to your next door neighbor the cop, lying about
what speed one was traveling at, or lying on a news broadcast he may be
watching. (Even if he's an Official Investigator!)
Also, convicting someone of "making false statements" is fairly
difficult, and such prosecutions and convictions are rare.
--Tim May
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