Wow. I was wondering when it would happen. Daniel Hopsicker gets sued every time he says "Hi, my name is Daniel Hopsicker." But no one has ever threatened yours truly with legal action until now.
I just got a very miffed letter from Charles Jaco, the newsman appearing in the video discussed here. Click the link if you want to see it, because he may soon force its removal from YouTube. He says that he was in Saudi Arabia when he made that broadcast (I'll accept his word on that) and that he was not "hyping" the danger during the broadcast.
Well, the video had been around for about a year by the time it came to my attention. I would have presumed there'd be an earlier response if the thing were utterly false. At any rate, all I did was embed it.
I wrote only three sentences mentioning Charles Jaco, and none of them fall under any definition of "libel" known to me -- especially when you consider that he is a public figure. I did not act out of malice and did not publish any statement which I knew at the time to be untrue. The guy simply has no case.
Besides, he would be an idiot to sue a pauper. (And he'd have a hell of a time finding me. Hell, even I'm not sure where I'll be a week from now.)
At any rate, he is welcome to publish his side of the story on this site. That's fair, isn't it?
(Odd thought: Am I a public figure? Never really wanted to be one, truth be told. Where is the line drawn between public and private, and who draws it?)
6 comments:
Call some of the top local law schools and see if they have a clinic that would want to handle your case.
Thanks, but there is no case.
A public figure has to prove intentional malice and foreknowledge of fraudulence or reckless disregard for the facts. I bear Jaco no malice -- hell, I had no idea who the guy was. I did not publish a single word known to me to be untrue. As for reckless disregard -- hell, I let the video (which had been public for a year) mostly speak for itself. The three statements I made about Jaco were hardly libelous.
Besides, I'm a lawyer's worst nightmare -- a guy with no money who JUST LOVES to spend time in a law library doing legal research.
Jaco will calm down and see that my offer to present his side of the story is reasonable and sincere.
Call me as a witness, I had a friend in the military at the time and was in near tears watching this guy and his gas mask ALERTS!
I could sue for emotional distress of the potential fear of loss of said best friend etc, etc, etc....
Heck, I even ordered REAL GAS masks when BUSH II said to get the DUCT TAPE! I thought, I am getting those masks that congress got!!! AYUP! I spent over a gran on protection and today...they are in the laundry room...not in the trunk of the car. Me got wise, or maybe I am slacking off on the 'preparedness for terror'.
So, my point is that when they flip on the PANIC button and terrorize us folks at home, we do take them (reporters as the gospel truth) seriously and run to protect the children and ourselves.
So, I would like to know having a 'writer' myself, if there is some concern of getting us folks all in fear mode and panic about our loved ones was a concern when doing the reports about the war.
I will be willing to testify while wearing my gas mask(I have the congress ones and some heavier duty ones)s for ya Jessepi...since, well don't really know if I am a public figure???
Gas Masked and waiting.
Anon, rather doubt that your tale is true. But it was funny.
and who draws it?. . .
I believe it is actually a true physical line that runs roughly parallel to the San Andreas fault that is drawn by Britney Spears. When she's high.
Even deigning to publish some useless yammering about suing YOU allows this poor sucker the satisfaction of knowing he got to you. Tell him if he wants to sue you well then I'll bl****ping countersue him just for the thrill of it. And I'll even pass on my address to you to pass on to him with the invitation for him to come over and try to beat me up...Or at least can stand under my window and taunt me with obscenities. Go for it big guy. Show us how tough you are.
Worthless piece of trash.
It's me! It's true!
Said friend (dude) was a flight engineer in the Air Force at the time and yes I can send you photos of the gas masks. The heavy duty ones were upon the suggestion of my hazmat sibling.
A shucks...does this mean you won't call me as a witness. :-(
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