Brickbat: Short Fuse

A court in Milan has ordered journalist Giulia Cortese to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 5,000 euros ($5,411 U.S.) after Cortese mocked Meloni on social media. In 2021, Cortese tweeted a fake photo showing Meloni and the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, igniting a war of words between the two. The court also handed Cortese a suspended fine of 1,200 euros ($1,300 U.S.) for another tweet it deemed "body shaming." "You don't scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you're only 1.2 metres [4 feet] tall. I can't even see you," Cortese wrote.

Comments

[Don't look at me!]

After all, you’re only 1.2 metres [4 feet] tall.

Got fined for telling tall tales.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Folks are going to have to master apophasis.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Journalist, eh?

[Quo Usque Tandem]

“so called…”

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Got me curious. One web site says she’s 5’2″ tall, another says 5’0″. So short, but not extremely. I thought body shaming meant telling the truth, and lies were lies. I guess I am behind the times, culturally.

[Rossami]

And these are the people and laws that US liberals keep saying we should emulate…

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Italians? Are you sure?

[Jerry B.]

Just think. If the U.S. government fined people for defamation like this, we could probably halve the national debt.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Imagine if politicians could be fined for defamation.

One of my libertopia fantasies is that people don’t vote for candidates, they vote for official legally-binding promises, and can be sued for violations. Of course, they’d all be “I will fight for justice” pablum, but imagine the fun diligent reporters could have during interviews — “Is that promise to cancel student loan debt an official promise?” — and after speeches — “Did you just make an official promise to cancel student loan debt?”. It would be fantastic campaign fodder, comparing official promises with all their backtracking to avoid turning speeches into official promises.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yeah, I have mused about the same fantasy. What would it be like if we could vote for positions on issues directly (open borders, tax rates, abortion) and then our representatives would have to craft solutions that matched voter mandates?

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Or even better, eliminate as much as possible from government purview.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

“What would it be like if we could vote for positions on issues directly (open borders, tax rates, abortion) and then our representatives would have to craft solutions that matched voter mandates?”

In many (not all) states, voters can do exactly that, because the state constitution empowers people to “instruct their representatives.”

Only in Massachusetts, however, do they have formal mechanisms to vote for instructions. Other states just ignore their constitutions.

Too bad – Burke’s speech to his electors and its defense of the valiant representative standing up to his own constituents in the public interest, is outdated (if it ever was true). Nowadays, when politicians stand up to their constituents, it’s in order to support bad policies (or if the constituents want a bad policy, to support a worse policy).

[Brandybuck]

The kind of authoritarian Trump aspires to be.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

And Biden is.

[Rick James]

Milan is no Central Hills, TX.

[Rick James]

I guess unlike the Biden administration, the Milan courts don’t have a direct red phone to Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.

[AT]

So this is ultimately a problem that Reason has always struggled with. They don’t actually seem to know what journalism is, or what constitutes a journalist. They’ve kinda taken that really evil Syndrome position of “When everyone’s special [“special” meaning “a journalist”], no one will be.” Hence all their defense of anyone with a cell phone camera and a social media account as “citizen journalists” (which is the stupidest term they use on this website, hands down). And you’ll notice Cortese is doing the same retarded thing. (“Cortese said it was a tough time for independent journalists in Italy.” emphasis mine)

They apply the moniker to people/actions who absolutely do not deserve it, and this is no different. From the source:

Cortese wrote on X on Thursday: “Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent.”

Do they though? Was what Cortese doing even “journalism” in the first place? Well, let’s see: a troll post with an obviously fake pic meant to slander Meloni as a Nazi; and an insult about her height.

Is that journalism? Does it somehow “become” journalism because it’s put to print by an alleged “journalist?” Are “freedom of expression” and “journalism” synonymous? (Answer: no.)

Now, the question of whether someone should be fined in court for being a scummy little internet troll aside, I think we can all agree that this isn’t a brickbat in the slightest – at least, not as it applies to journalists or journalism. Neither of which were present here.

[Rick James]

In the summer of 2009, Amy Rose and Alice Ferguson, two mothers living on Greville Road in Bristol, a midsize city in southwest England, found themselves in a strange predicament: They saw entirely too much of their kids. “We were going, like, Why are they here?” Rose told me. “Why aren’t they outside?” The friends decided to run an experiment. They applied to shut their quarter-mile road to traffic for two hours after school on a June afternoon—not for a party or an event but just to let the children who lived there play. Intentionally, they didn’t prepare games or activities, Rose told me, as it would have defeated the purpose of the inquiry: “With time, space, and permission, what happens?”

Millennial moms discover motherhood, film at wine-o’clock.

[Rick James]

*wrong thread*