Dem., Kerry lawyers try to squelch anti-Kerry ad

[Douglas J. Broda]

But that is irrelevant to the topic that is (I believe) relevant for this 
list -- the airing of the ad on television.

Accurate or not, legal under the Internal Revenue Code section 527 or not, 
the prior restraint of political speech is quite unlikely to be ordered by 
a court of law.

If I am true to myself (a basically moderate Democrat who believes that 
free speech is the heartbeat of America), I must insist that the means for 
addressing inaccuracies in a political ad is not to squelch speech, but 
rather to prove its inaccuracy, even if there is a cost to a particular 
candidate I would badly prefer to see prevail over his opponent.

At 02:17 PM 8/6/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>At 2:19 AM -0400 8/6/04, Bob Nelson wrote:
>>http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfit_pdf.html
>>
>>The conservative website Human Events has obtained a letter from lawyers 
>>for John Kerry and the Dem. National Committee, sent to TV stations 
>>"suggesting" they should refuse an ad for a group called Swift Boat 
>>Veterans for the Truth. The lawyers dispute the claims of the ad which 
>>has several Vietnam veterans saying that Kerry "lied to get his Silver 
>>Star"; that Kerry is unfit to lead, etc. As the ad prepares to hit the 
>>airwaves, a book related to it has had massive pre-orders (it's #1 on 
>>amazon.com). This looks like a massive effort by these lawyers to get the 
>>ad taken off the air.
>
>The problem with the ad, as I understand it, is that the people who claim 
>to have "served" with Kerry were in Vietnam at the time he was, but had no 
>direct connection or knowledge of his actions.  The doctor who claims to 
>have treated Kerry is not the doctor who signed off on his chart.
>--
>Larry Weil
>Lake Wobegone, NH

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Douglas J. Broda
Attorney at Law
80 Ferry Street, Troy, NY 12180 USA
(518) 272-0580
dbroda@nycap.rr.com