Propaganda and Persuasion

Honesty requires identifying the source of original investigative reporting. The law imposes no duty to acknowledge the investigative journalist who uncovers facts important to public discourse. The issue is attribution. Investigative journalism often requires months or years of examining public records, locating witnesses, verifying documents, separating fact from rumor, organizing evidence, and recognizing relationships that […]

For more than a century American courts, legal scholars, journalists, and politicians have assumed that truth and falsehood compete in a “marketplace of ideas” and that the First Amendment freedoms of speech and of the press ensure that truth will eventually prevail. In a real marketplace, buyers and sellers possess reasonably reliable information about value. […]

Andrew Weissmann in his book, Liar’s Kingdom, argues that existing law is inadequate to deal with candidates and elected officials who knowingly make false statements of fact in order to obtain or retain political power. He proposes legal reforms intended to address that problem. His concern is legitimate. Deliberate falsehoods about verifiable facts can threaten […]