Should Malkin and Rush be sued if anything happens to Graeme Frost

[Gothmog]

The right wingers have swiftboated this young man and have published his address and other personal information as part of their smear campaign. Malkin, Rush and other right wing bloggers have in effect accused this young man of being a welfare fraud by accepting benefits that they claim that he is not entitled to. These charges are clearly false and misleading but neither rush, Malkin nor any of the right wing slime machine has admitted that they made a mistake. The clear intent of such charges is rile up their base and the provision of personal information on this young man and his family has made them vulnerable to any actions taken by a member of the audience or base of these bloggers and right wing media sources. As a result of the lies and false statements made by people like Malkin and Rush, this young man has received death threats and he and his family have reason to be worried about freeptards going further.

To my knowledge there has been no retractions or admissions of a mistake made by rush, Malkin or their ilk. I am a lawyer and it seems to me that if anything happens to any member for the Frost family due to the actions of one of the listeners or fans of these right wing sources, that a case could be made that Malkin, Rush and the people who posted the address and personal information of the Frost family could be liable for inciting such actions. It might be a tough case but given the outrageousness of the lies told about Graeme Foster, surely some of my trial lawyer members of the bar could make a case that should be able to get to a jury. You can not make false statements about someone knowing that such statements are likely to be acted on without some civil exposure

One element of this case would be that it was reasonably foreseeable that a viewer or fan of rush, malkins or any of the other right wing shows could decide to act on such lies and do something illegal due to such lies.

If you agree, then it may help to deter this conduct if e-mails or callers ask rush, malkin and the other right wingers if they are worried about being sued if anything happens to any member of the Foster family. If such e-mails are sent now in advance of any possible injury to a member of the Foster family and these sources either ignored e-mails or calls or continued pushing their lies/talking points after being put on notice, then a case can be meade for punitive damages in addition to damages.

If nothing else, this may give these idiots something to think about.

[rox63]

1. The Frosts should definitely consider getting restraining orders against the people threatening them

[niyad]

2. definitely they should be sued. pity we no longer have the stocks and pillory.

[jojo54]

3. I think it's in order already.

There have already been phone threats to the family and people have thrown things at their house. Although I'm not a lawyer, what Rush, Malkin and all of the others did should be the equivalent to defamation of character.

[johnnie]

4. I think action should be taken against them right now anyway

I would file for restraint orders at least. Just to bring it to more of the public front.

[Gothmog]

5. restraining orders are good but fear of a lawsuit is better

If DUers agree with this concept, then it would not hurt to send e-mails or to make calls to rush, malkin and others to put these people on notice of their exposure. Again, if there are e-mails or calls made aprising these people of their exposure, then (a) these people may back down or (b) if they do not back down, then the lawsuit against them will be much stronger with a decent chance of getting punitive damages.

If you want to lay the groundwork here call rush or e-mail malkin and ask if they are worried if their comments may have put this family in danger and if they are worried about being sued if something happens to any member of this family due to their comments.

[Spazito]

6. Add mitch mcconnell to the list, him and his aide, the one who

started this by sending out an e-mail with the boy's home address, etc.