“…when it comes to parody, the law requires a reasonable reader standard, not a ‘most gullible person on Facebook’ standard. The First Amendment does not depend on whether everyone is in on the joke.” — Judge Amul Thapar, Sixth Circuit, writing on behalf of a unanimous panel that “an Ohio man who was acquitted of a felony after creating a parody Facebook page that mocked a suburban Cleveland police department can sue the city and two police officers over his arrest.” [Jonathan Stempel, Reuters]
Related: everyone has the right to call politicians idiots, and that goes for gun store owners too [Eugene Volokh; North Carolina gun store owner’s billboard likened by sitting member of Congress to “inciting violence”]
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For anyone who missed it the first time, First Amendment lawyer Ken White (“Popehat”) was inspired to do his own parody of the Parma Police Department:
https://www.popehat.com/2016/04/05/official-city-of-parma-police-department-press-release/
Since Ken is a lawyer, every specifically libelous charge is carefully denied, though not a general impression that the Parma PD are humorless morons…
Perhaps a federal civil rights prosecution is in order . . ..
Someone please tell Snopes that Babylon Bee is a parody site…
The Onion claims that Babylon Bee is not a parody site, comparing it to many of the great bastions of journalism today.
😉
So a parody college newspaper (The Onion) claims that Babylon Bee is not a parody site? Somehow I find that less than convincing.
So a parody college newspaper (The Onion) claims that Babylon Bee is not a parody site? Somehow I find that less than convincing.
Sorry Matt. Next time I’ll try to be more obvious with the sarcasm.
Pot->Kettle. Update your own sarcasm detector.
For Rashida Tlaib et al, I have tried to popularize the name “Gang of Four” (written up in Wikipedia), Deng Xiaoping’s name for the four loudest advocates of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.