Xref: utzoo news.admin:4282 news.misc:2401
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!dalsqnt!usl!usl-pc!jpdres10
From: jpdres10@usl-pc.usl.edu (Green Eric Lee)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.misc
Subject: Re: JEDR, Templeton, and the law
Message-ID: <145@usl-pc.usl.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 88 23:51:22 GMT
References: <13734@terminus.UUCP> <8386@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette
Lines: 31
Distribution:
Keywords:
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Reply-To:
Followup-To:

In message <8386@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>, sethg@athena.mit.edu (Seth Gordon) says:
>nyssa@terminus.UUCP (The Prime Minister) in <13734@terminus.UUCP>:
>What *is* your understanding of the laws down here?  In order to win a
>libel case, you have to prove the libeler made a *false* *and*
>*damaging* statement about the libelee.  Sure, what JEDR has done might
>have damaged Templeton's reputation, but was any of it *false*?

>Also, according to my understanding of the laws up there, distributing
>racist humor, as rec.humor.funny did, is *illegal* in Canada; a recent
>K-W Record article quoted a member of the Canadian Human Rights
>Commission as verifying this.

Sort of reminds me of a radio show Harlan Ellison did some years back.
After cracking several Jewish jokes, a caller called accusing him of
being a racist. "Hey," he said, "some of my best friends are Jews!
Like my mother, my father, me..."

Isaac Asimov is another author who has a large repertoire of Jewish
jokes. Again, some of his best friends.... mother, father, him... etc.

Where Brad was libeled was when someone said that the Jewish joke he
posted was racist. Unfortunately, while it would be difficult to
impossible to prove that it was racist, it is also difficult to prove
that it is NOT racist, which is what he'd have to prove in a libel
suit. (how do you PROVE something is racist? Just the mentioning of an
ethnic name and a quality commonly associated with that name? Like
"Isaac Asimov is a Jew. Isaac Asimov is rich" is racist?).

--
Eric Lee Green                            P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509
     {ames,mit-eddie,osu-cis,...}!killer!elg, killer!usl!elg, etc.