10-09-2019, 12:32 PM
(10-08-2019, 07:18 PM)Au165 Wrote: So if CNN says President Trump paid hush money to a porn star before the campaign and shared conversations with said porn star that would be harassment. The intent was to cause political damage, I’m sure no one would deny that, and that information probably cause him emotional distress so it was harassment correct?
Let’s get it less political before people say that’s different. If a celeb cheats on their wife and the mistress sends pictures of the two together (nothing nude just kissing) to a tabloid and the tabloid chooses to print them because they don’t like that particular celeb that is harassment right? What if a tabloid outs a celeb as gay, that’s harassment right?
Let’s go a step further, if I post to Facebook that you got fired Fred and you didn’t want anyone to know and now you’re depressed is that harassment?
In the first two cases the law treats "public figures" differently from private citizens when it comes to making statements about them. Public figures, ESPECIALLY CANDIDATES FOR PUBLIC OFFICE, give up some protection due to their choice to be a public figure. This is more commonly dealt with in libel and slander cases, but it should also apply to harassment. Certainly anything pertaining to a candidate for office is fair game because of the public interest.
In the final case it seems the information would be public knowledge so it is complicated. But, for example, If you knew my children would never speak to me again if they knew I had gotten fired and I was somehow able to keep them from knowing then it could possibly be harassment.
Different cases will be treated differently based on all the facts. In this threads case the people who posted the information knew it was a complete secret and that making it public would cause the victim considerable psychological and possibly even physical damage, so I still don't know why people don't think they should be punished.
