{"id":78,"date":"2026-05-21T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=78"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:41:00","slug":"a-culture-of-defamation-breeds-a-culture-of-political-assassinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=78","title":{"rendered":"A Culture Of Defamation Breeds A Culture Of Political Assassinations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New York Times<\/em>\u00a0v.\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>\u00a0(1964), once revered as a landmark First Amendment ruling, has become controversial in recent years. Leading political figures on the American right, such as\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0and\u00a0Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have lamented its influence on our public discourse. Leading jurists, such as Supreme Court Justices\u00a0Clarence Thomas\u00a0and\u00a0Neil Gorsuch, have called into question its constitutional legitimacy.<\/p>\n

Read more Social Justice Therapy Is Teaching Clinicians That A Child\u2019s Race Matters More Than Her Abuser\u2019s Crimes<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a welcome development. The\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>\u00a0opinion and its famous \u201cactual malice\u201d doctrine never deserved their celebrated status. They are fruit of the Supreme Court\u2019s most activist era, during which the justices routinely substituted their own policy preferences for the original meaning of the Constitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Traditionally, all Americans could defend their reputations through libel law when falsehoods damaged them publicly. The\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>\u00a0court changed this by introducing a two-tier system of libel law.\u00a0Its \u201cactual malice\u201d standard applies only to public figures, requiring them to prove not only that defamatory claims were false, but that those who published them either knew they were false or recklessly disregarded the truth. In practice, this standard is extraordinarily difficult to meet, which is why public figures almost never prevail in libel suits, even when devastating accusations prove untrue.<\/p>\n

In charting this new course, the court departed markedly from the understanding of libel and the freedom of the press held by those who wrote and ratified the First Amendment. Where the modern court says that libel cases involving public figures raise a First Amendment problem, the founders held that libel was simply outside the scope of the freedom of the press and therefore unprotected by that vital constitutional principle. The founders\u2019 understanding of libel included nothing like the contemporary \u201cactual malice\u201d standard. Instead, for them the plaintiff would rightly prevail if the published charges were false and harmful to reputation.<\/p>\n

Sullivan<\/em>\u00a0Court\u2019s Doctrine Has Proven Harmful<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The present majority of the Supreme Court has shown an admirable willingness to correct earlier instances of judicial activism and return our constitutional law to traditional standards rooted in the original meaning of the Constitution. It would be fitting for them to carry this good work further and revisit the doctrine of\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0v.\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>. The justices will be understandably reluctant to do so, however, because of the\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>\u00a0case\u2019s status as a longstanding precedent. For them, such precedent should not be reversed merely because it was wrong in the first place, but only if the error has also proven harmful.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>\u00a0Court\u2019s doctrine, however, has proven very harmful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the most alarming aspects of contemporary American politics is our growing culture of assassination. Attempts at political violence are becoming more frequent, and public expressions of sympathy for or approval of such acts are growing more common as well.<\/p>\n

A 2025 PBS News\/NPR\/Marist\u00a0survey\u00a0found that nearly 30 percent of Americans believe violence may be necessary to \u201cget the country back on track,\u201d while a Harvard youth\u00a0poll\u00a0found that nearly 40 percent of young Americans believe political violence can be justified in certain circumstances. This should alarm us all in an era of growing political hatred, dehumanization, and increasingly open calls for violence against ideological opponents.<\/p>\n

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Culture of Defamation and Assassination<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Donald Trump was nearly killed twice while running for president in 2024.\u00a0Late in that same year, insurance executive Brian Thompson was shot to death as an act of political protest. Last year, Charlie Kirk was publicly assassinated while peacefully speaking to a crowd. Most recently, a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association\u00a0(WHCA) dinner with the aim of shooting\u00a0the president and others in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each of these acts of violence has called forth a legion of ghoulish cheerleaders. In the wake of the attacks on Trump and Kirk, social media was flooded with cries of approval. Just this week, left-wing journalists in New York City publicly\u00a0made light\u00a0of Thompson\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This growing tendency toward violence is fueled by another diseased part of our political culture: our culture of defamation, which has also been growing in recent years. Americans are less likely to debate the merits of political ideas and public policies. Instead, they increasingly attack one another\u2019s character and accuse each other of the most egregious crimes\u00a0in order\u00a0to win political battles.<\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise that a culture of defamation would foster a culture of assassination. Widespread defamation leads many Americans to believe that their leaders are hopelessly corrupt or irredeemably evil. Is it any surprise that the relentless popularization of such beliefs would drive some of the more unhinged and reckless\u00a0among\u00a0us to violence?<\/p>\n

This connection between defamation and assassination was made evident recently in the manifesto of the alleged WHCA shooter. He justified his actions by\u00a0claiming\u00a0that President Trump is \u201ca pedophile, rapist, and traitor.\u201d In truth, Trump has never been convicted of any of these heinous crimes. He has, however, been accused of them repeatedly by his political enemies and their enablers in the partisan press.<\/p>\n

This culture of defamation \u2014 and the culture of assassination arising from it \u2014 are the poisonous fruit of the Supreme Court\u2019s constitutional error in\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0v.\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>, which enables defamation by weakening the wholesome legal restraints that once kept it in check. This is more than sufficient harm for the contemporary court to revisit and correct\u00a0Sullivan<\/em>. A free society cannot survive indefinitely if public life becomes a contest of reckless defamation, moral hysteria, and political demonization. The peace of our society and the stability of our republic may depend on restoring the legal and cultural restraints that once kept those impulses in check.<\/p>\n

Read more Stop Blaming Conservatives For The Left\u2019s Baby Bust<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More and more, Americans attack one another\u2019s character and accuse each other of the most egregious crimes in order to win political battles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[410,411,412,3,413,365,414,415,416,135,417],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-actual-malice-standard","tag-assassination","tag-defamation","tag-donald-trump","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-malice","tag-new-york-times-co-v-sullivan","tag-supreme-court","tag-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nA Culture Of Defamation Breeds A Culture Of Political Assassinations - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=78\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Culture Of Defamation Breeds A Culture Of Political Assassinations - Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More and more, Americans attack one another\u2019s character and accuse each other of the most egregious crimes in order to win political battles.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=78\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T14:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5605a18359d2e50ce7a8b537513a6002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"676\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=78#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=78\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2\"},\"headline\":\"A Culture Of Defamation Breeds A Culture Of Political Assassinations\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T14:41:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=78\"},\"wordCount\":1006,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=78#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/5605a18359d2e50ce7a8b537513a6002.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"actual malice standard\",\"assassination\",\"defamation\",\"Donald Trump\",\"First Amendment\",\"free speech\",\"Freedom of the Press\",\"Malice\",\"New York Times Co. v. 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