Harming someone's reputation in speech with falsehoods is known as slander, and doing the same thing in writing is known as libel (which sometimes includes speech as well). Any ordinary citizen who can claim to have suffered harm as a result of such defamation may sue. So why aren't politicians suing all the time? Because an exception is made for "public persons" (a category that includes most other celebrities as well), who must also prove that any such statement was made with "reckless disregard for the truth". And although, even by that standard, public persons are defamed all the time, most of them have decided that it's better to just grin and bear it.
The article was full of lies and defamations.
accused the newspaper columnist of defamation of character
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Nonetheless, as Push told GQ, his label and their parent label were concerned about the optics of two of Drizzy’s foes linking up amid the ongoing defamation lawsuit.—Armon Sadler, VIBE.com, 24 June 2025 Shawe, not one to stay out of the courts, sued the lawyer representing the class, Jeremiah Frei-Pearson, for defamation in May 2024.—Phoebe Liu, Forbes.com, 23 June 2025 The bitter legal battle escalated last week when Martinez filed a defamation claim against CTU, union President Stacy Davis Gates and board President Sean Harden.—Kate Armanini, Chicago Tribune, 17 June 2025 Fox News paid $787 million to keep Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against that cable channel from going to trial.—Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News, 17 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for defamation
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