Yes, free speech is not consequence-free
By Chris Roberts It’s hard to think that $1 billion will actually ever be paid to victims of Alex Jones’ libelous speech about the parents whose children died in mass shootings, but it’s easy to recognize that our First Amendment right to free speech does not mean speech has no consequences. Here’s the FoxNews.com story […]
You gotta read The Onion’s ‘friend of the court’ brief
Reading court filings usually feels like having a tooth filed or filled, but The Onion’s amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court filed in early October 2022 is worth your time. This may be the most friendly written “friend of the court” brief ever. Background: Anthony Novak built a fake Facebook page that mocked […]
Never take financial tips from a Kardashian or other celebrities, especially when they don’t tell you it’s an ad
By Chris Roberts Never take financial tips from advertising. And never, ever take financial tips when it’s advertising and they don’t tell you it’s advertising. Kim Kardashian peddled EthereumMax’s crypto asset in Instagram posts in June 2021. What she didn’t do was tell her audience that she was paid $250,000 for the sales pitch. That’s […]
New York Times on hate speech rules in Germany
Take a look at The New York Times’ story on Sept. 23, 2022 — “Where online hate speech can bring the police to your door.” The story focuses on Germany, which has laws against what it defines as “hate speech.” German law enforcement is active against hate speech, which ranges from denying the Holocaust to […]
When looking at journalism ethics winners, consider the public relations losers
By Chris Roberts The Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of its annual Ethics in Journalism awards on Sept. 22, 2022. They are: ►Hannah Dreyfus of ProPublica, whose project The Liberty Way showed how Liberty University dealt with students who reported rape. ►Josh Renaud of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, whose reporting revealed that a […]
Define your terms, or the propagandists win
Iowa State’s Michael Bugeja makes a strong point in a Poynter Institute column (June 30, 2022) about how some Republican candidates use the term “RINO” — Republican in Name Only” — to describe other Republicans who show “apparent disloyalty to Trump as GOP kingmaker.” His commentary includes Republican Jim Jones, who in 2021 provided a […]
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Today in minimum standards: Don’t bribe
Here’s an example of a minimum standard: Don’t bribe people, whether they’re public officials or not. WPP, the world’s largest advertising and public relations company, will pay $19 million without admitting guilt in a federal claim that it bribed officials in India and Brazil. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed the company violated the […]