Adam Serwer in The Atlantic, October 17, 2022, writes, “Most of the time, conservatives argue that it is not easy enough to sue for defamation. The standard for defamation of public figures in the United States is high in order to protect freedom of speech in general and political debate in particular. Altering that standard would make speech in America less free. But the response of many right-wing figures to the Jones verdict shows that rather than ‘freedom of speech,’ what they actually have in mind is an arrangement in which liberal speech is chilled by exacting legal standards that do not apply to conservatives.” The verdicts in the Alex Jone defamation cases show that even with Times v. Sullivan, it is possible to successfully sue for defamation.
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