The Democratic Party should sue NBC -- and cartoonist Scott Stantis

Katie Couric had the audacity to lie to Howard Dean's face. She told Dean that he was the liar. This happened on Today, which apparently has been dragooned into the effort to provide RNC spin on the Abramoff affair.

She kept repeating the lie that Jack Abramoff gave money to Democrats, which he did not. Furthermore, his clients/victims -- casino-owning Indian tribes -- diverted their donations from Democrats to the Republicans, although the tribes continued to give small amounts to their traditional allies.

As we've seen in a previous post, the Washington Post tried to make the case that Jean Carnahan received funding at Abramoff's "direction." In fact, she received nothing; her opponent did. The Post said the same thing about Tom Daschle, who also received nothing. Max Cleland received a mere $500 from one of Abramoff's Indian clients, but that amount probably would have been much higher if Abramoff never existed.

The Democratic Party, as an institution, should file a lawsuit against NBC for libel. A similar suit can and should be filed against any "deep pockets" media organ who repeats the Jack-gave-to-Dems lie.

Can such a suit be won? Perhap not; libel suits are notoriously difficult, even when the facts are clearly on your side. But such a suit would have a number of other purposes:

1. It would inform the public that -- contrary to myth -- the major media are all owned and directed by conservative forces.

2. It would inform those media barons that Democrats are as numerous and as powerful as are the "wackos" who, lemming-like, will jump over any cliff that Ralph Reed points at.

3. A suit would force everyone who has been repeating the Abramoff lie to retreat and to play the humiliating game of "What I really meant to say was..."

Firedoglake has contact info for the NBC ombudswhatever. His name is David McCormick:

david.mccormick@nbc.com
212-664-3984

Give him a call and tell NBC to stop lying.

On a related note: Scott Stantis is an editorial and strip cartoonist operating out of Arizona. He regularly offers the world the absurd spectacle of a small black child mouthing Republican platitudes written by a white guy. Here's his latest:

In this case, I think that both the Democratic party and Howard Dean personally should sue Stantis and his syndicate.

Yes, I know that Howard Dean is a public figure. Yes, I know that any public figure will have a particularly hard time making the case for libel. But even famous people have rights (remember Carol Burnett vs. The National Enquirer?) -- and this cartoon is actionable. The provably false statement that 80 Democratic politicians received Abramoff money is not a matter of opinion and is not protected by the claim of "satire."

By the way -- I know Dean isn't easy to draw, but the Stantis caricature really stinks.

The Stantis cartoon brings up another question: Why aren't conservatives funny? I'll grant that H.L. Mencken was wonderful, and P.J. O'Rourke definitely had his moments when he wrote for the old National Lampoon. Dennis Miller used to be hilarious. Aside from that, the record is pretty dismal. The alleged "humor" of Rush Limbaugh appeals to the same Ancient Ones who also laugh at Hee Haw, Bob Hope and the Reader's Digest joke pages.