In a perfect world ...
You should be allowed to say whatever offensive, insensitive thing you want so long as:
* It doesn't incite people to commit a crime
* It doesn't violate someone's privacy
* It is true
There's probably some others, but these are enough to see that there's so much devil in so many details that we're never going to get close to a perfect world.
The third point is the one that I think we miss most egregiously. I believe in England truth is a defense against slander charges? I often wonder why the opposite isn't pursued.
Campaign commercials are routinely shown to be factually incorrect, but we (meaning Congress) have carved those out as explicitly allowed to be lies. Commercials for other products routinely torture the facts, but the only time you see that in court is when one company sues another.
* It doesn't incite people to commit a crime
* It doesn't violate someone's privacy
* It is true
There's probably some others, but these are enough to see that there's so much devil in so many details that we're never going to get close to a perfect world.
The third point is the one that I think we miss most egregiously. I believe in England truth is a defense against slander charges? I often wonder why the opposite isn't pursued.
Campaign commercials are routinely shown to be factually incorrect, but we (meaning Congress) have carved those out as explicitly allowed to be lies. Commercials for other products routinely torture the facts, but the only time you see that in court is when one company sues another.