Dominion has had some success in getting Fox to back down by threatening libel actions, and is threatening to sue Trump and his attorneys.
This may be one way in which the spread of disinformation can be halted.
Last night a group of people staged a candlelight vigil at Josh Hawley’s home, protesting his pre-announced attempt to destroy our democracy. He, in turn, accused the peaceful demonstrators of being “Antifa scumbags” who committed acts of terror and vandalism at his home. Naturally he was lying, as the videos of the entire event demonstrate.
The people involved in that demonstration were not public figures, which means that if they were to sue Hawley for libel, they would not need to prove actual malice, only that he was lying. Nowadays, it would seem the burden of proof should be on a Republican politician to prove he or she was not lying with regard to any particular statement they might make, but even sticking with the previous standard, it wouldn’t be hard to prove Hawley was lying. My dim recollection of libel law is that it is a libel per se if one is accused of a criminal act, and vandalism is a criminal act.
If these people keep getting sued, with the attendant humiliation of having to eat their words, they might just think twice before engaging in this sort of rhetoric.
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