Corporations Effectively Have More Rights than You Do on Defamation Suits

 I was interested to read this cite in a report on a situation in which someone accused a corporation of illegal activity:

In Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc., 472 U.S. 749 (1985) the Supreme Court allowed a business to sue a credit reporting agency for defamation where the agency mistakenly reported that the business had filed for bankruptcy.

Restatement Second § 561 Defamation of Corporations states:

“One who publishes defamatory matter concerning a corporation is subject to liability to it

(a)  if the corporation is one for profit, and the matter tends to prejudice it in the conduct of its business or to deter others from dealing with it, or

(b)  if, although not for profit, it depends upon financial support from the public, and the matter tends to interfere with its activities by prejudicing it in public estimation.”

Did you know that "Defamation of Corporations" was an actionable grounds for a lawsuit? And it says "One who publishes". Does that include newspapers, websites, blogs and the like? How about Facebook Feeds? Fact is, it is very hard for private citizens to sue for defamation. Most of us don't have the resources. Big corporations do, so citizen journalists might be deterred from reporting something even if there is reason to think it is true simply because they can be sued for defamation by an artificial government-created entity called a corporation. 

But it goes beyond that. Look at the wording of those statements. We bad-mouth various members of our society, members of other tribes and political clubs and what have you, all the time, in a way that would "interfere" in their activities by "prejudicing it in public estimation." It is hard to avoid the conclusion that on this issue, courts have manufactured the "right" to sue for artificial government-created entities called corporations that is at least equal to your right and mine to do so, but they have much more resources with which to exercise their right! So smart people would be much more reticent to publish derogatory information about them rather than us!

In Localism, a philosophy of government there are thirteen doorways to centralization which must be kept shut in order to maintain a decentralized society. If any of them is left open, you will wind up with an increasingly centralized state regardless of the preferences of the people when the door is first opened. One of these is abuse of incorporation. We can't have a decentralized government when global corporations are free to buy, sell, lobby, and give to PACS without limitation. They are going to push for centralization every time and for us to be free (which requires political decentralization) they must be bound. 

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