• Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 months ago

    alleged role,

    Until he’s been criminally convicted for it, it’s “alleged” in order to avoid defamation and libel cases.

    • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      He was found by a trial and state supreme Court to have engaged in an insurrection. It’s not alleged.

      • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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        7 months ago

        He was found by a trial and state supreme Court to have engaged in an insurrection. It’s not alleged.

        If you want to be safe from libel and defamation cases, it’s “alleged” until you’ve been found guilty/liable at trial, and that hasn’t happened to Trump yet.

        • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          I don’t think that’s true. The Colorado state supreme Court says he engaged in an insurrection. Truth is a defense.

          • kava@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            The Colorado state supreme Court says he engaged in an insurrection. Truth is a defense

            The truth is up to interpretation. You can say what you believe to be the truth, but somebody with a lot of money and access to experienced lawyers can cripple you with a lawsuit regardless.

            Do you really want to engage in a trial that could theoretically take years? Spending untold sums of money in order to defend yourself? Even if you will probably win, you’re tying up a lot of capital and manpower to fight it. For what? The difference between an article that has the word “alleged” or not?

            The risk-reward just isn’t there.

            • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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              7 months ago

              With that logic couldn’t you basically never tell the truth about anyone sufficiently rich and vindictive enough to pursue you in court? Like Trump could be sitting in jail, and we’d still be saying alleged because he might tie you up in court?

              • kava@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                and you just basically described why news organizations prefer to use alleged

                • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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                  7 months ago

                  So if Trump is sitting in jail, found criminally guilty in his indictments, USA today would be justified in what, calling him allegedly guilty, in case he feels like bankrupting them with his money? I find this very hard to beleive.

                  • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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                    7 months ago

                    Once he’s been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court they’ll drop the alleged.

                    This isn’t even a Trump specific thing, they use “alleged” or “accused” to refer to any crime committed by anyone that they haven’t been found guilty/liable for. Or will describe them as being arrested for specific charges or a specific incident if that’s what they’re reporting on. But in that case , they’ll refer to them as being arrested for X and then being alleged or accused of X, but not simply that they did X.

              • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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                7 months ago

                You simply refer to it as “alleged” until found guilty/liable when referencing someone doing something criminal or similar.

                They could also get by with quoting that judges opinion, so long as they made it clear what they are quoting.

                But a judge presenting an opinion regarding a ballot removal in which the accused was not entitled to a thorough defense and the standard being held was “whatever the judge personally felt best” rather than the more rigorous standards of a criminal trial was probably enough for their legal department to insist on the “alleged”.