Media Law Week Two Essay
Instructions:
Please read the following fact pattern, then answer the questions found below. Number your answers. Make sure you read the entire question and answer the question that is asked. Your objective is to identify the legal issue, write out the correct legal rule or test – verbatim from the text, apply the facts to the rule, identify a defense if it is applicable, then come to your conclusion. IRAC – Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion. You will be graded on whether you adhere to the above formula, while applying the correct rule, analysis and coming to the correct conclusion. You get no points for an answer that identifies the incorrect rule or does not include all elements of the correct rule. Pay attention to detail.
Fact Pattern:
President Donald Trump holds a rally in front of the White House. The crowd numbers in the thousands, and is made up of hard-core Trump supporters. They include members of militias, far-right extremists and some hate groups – as well as regular Republicans who are just there to hear the outgoing President speak to a crowd one last time.
During his speech, the crowd gets more and more rowdy. At one point, Trump states, “You know what you should do? You should march down there and storm the Capitol!” Shortly afterward, a few hundred members of the crowd do just that. They march down and storm the Capitol, breaking windows, fighting with police and trespassing.
Afterward, Roxie Reporter, who works for The Washington Poster newspaper, gets a tip that President Trump was drunk when he made that speech. That would contradict one of Trump’s most common claims: that he does not drink alcohol. The tipster tells Roxie that the Secret Service agents at the White House wrote up an incident report, that details Trump’s drinking that day.
Roxie sends a records request to Secret Service Headquarters, asking for that specific report. Two hours later, the records department sends her the incident report. On page two, one agent writes, “The President was intoxicated on the morning of the incident. He had been drinking heavily since the night before.”
Roxie uses that quote in her story, but because of the tight deadline, she does not reach out to the White House for comment or to see if officials there can verify that Trump was drunk.
The Poster publishes the story, but it turns out that Trump was not drunk. The Secret Service report was inaccurate.
- If President Trump is charged with incitement, would the prosecution succeed or fail? Why or why not?
- If President Trump sues Roxie reporter for libel, will the case succeed or fail? Why or why not?