The owner of a northern Wisconsin television station is stumped as to why the President’s reelection campaign is suing over a critical super PAC ad it ran.
If the courts are Just, this lawsuit is dead on arrival. Period. There was nothing in that political statement that was untrue. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is an effort to not only quiet political dissent but to also take up time and money from Super PACs.
That ad absolutely kicks ass.
I note that Trump isn’t suing the Super PAC. That’s because the Super PAC would fund a defense that would cause Trump to lose. I don’t know if the Super PAC will or can support the local TV station, but this is Trump’s M.O. He picks on the little guy in the courts and drives them to their knees. It’s a cowardly method. But what else would you expect from a coward?
Toothless intimidation threats have always seemed to work for Trump before, why not now? Another good ad, btw.
[“Dave Heller, deputy director of the Media Law Resource Center, told TPM it seemed likely that the Trump campaign was sending a “shot across the bow to other local television stations” by suing WJFW rather than the super PAC that paid to air the ad.”]
If at all possible, TRUMP PUNCHES DOWN.
The intimidation and desperation of a petulant, fake school yard bully.
Well, Just skip all of the 1st amendment defenses, and go with the easy stuff… the advertisement is TRUTHFUL. Truth is always a defense. Some group needs to fund the defense of this TV station, and use the discovery of Trump’s campaign and Trump to show truth.
Trump’s campaign has separately sued The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN for pieces from opinion writers that it alleged showed “a systematic pattern of bias” and “reckless disregard for the truth…
Irony (time immemorial - 2020) Dead, Latest Victim of Orange Plague.
If broadcasters can be liable for broadcasting lies and half-truths told by politicians, then no Trump press conferences could be covered.
Bertrand Russell:
“I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.”
And, I might add, the GOP worldview.
Trump is too afraid to go after people and organizations that can afford to go up against him legally, so he’s picking on the little people. Not in the least surprising.
Typical Trump and his merry band of aholes. Sue the sht out of people that can’t afford it, bankrupt them or scare them to death, lose in COURT but destroy people that show what liars the Trumps are…and the Deplorables cheer.
So, it is agreed then that those producing and airing anti-Trump ads are screwed.
In the “cease-and-desist” letter last month, and again in its lawsuit filing Monday, the campaign said a piece of Trump’s dialogue in the ad was defamatory.
A piece of tRump’s dialog is defamatory…REALLY?
Just a piece?
Just one piece 
At first glance, I thought this story was about the GOP…
Hasn’t the trump campaign figured out that by serving (or threatening) lawsuits, they just end up giving lots more publicity to the ad, and a lot more people will hear about it than otherwise might…
Trump lies, then threatens then sues to intimidate and get his way!
For the WI TV Station…as long as the ads were all inconvenient truths to Trump…he will throw a fit…either lie, threaten or sue!
BUT stand strong because you are in the right side of history!
Obviously this suit is meant to intimidate the station. It is relatively easy for a national campaign to bully a small station. It is probably going to be a test of Mitch McConnell’s efforts to politicize the Federal Bench. This case shouldn’t survive the first encounter with a Federal judge. If it does we will know we are in much worse shape than we thought.
The fact that they must respond in court is an act of screwing because they have to fund lawyers, unless they have insurance that pays those fees.
I can’t tell from the article if this is a lawsuit in WI courts, or if it’s a federal lawsuit. IANAL, so I don’t understand the jurisdictional issues. We know the WI SCOTUS is corrupt and strongly GOP. The Rhinelander area is strongly GOP, so local courts are likely GOP-controlled. So the question comes down to whether or not the court will judge on political bias. I’m not holding my breath.
Is there any way that the Democratic party can use these kind of legally-abusive and frivolous lawsuits as part of anti-Trump campaign ads? There are so many things one can slam Trump with…a richness of ammunition…that it may be impossible to use them all. There’s also viewer fatigue.
So, other than taking that ad out of rotation, what damages are they seeking? I think every tv station in the country should report on the lawsuit, and to make sure their viewers understand the case, they should play the ad at least twice in its entirety during each reporting segment.
Also, what happens if (as apparently so many times before) they don’t actually file? Is there any penalty for that?
