Kanye West Vs. Joe Wilson

Some listeners to my Barely Legal Radio Program are asking me if Taylor Swift has a defamation case against Kanye West for his recent actions against her at the VMA awards, and if Barack Obama has a defamation case against Joe Wilson. Although it would be unimaginable to see her pursue this, Swift actually has a couple decent causes of action against West.

In a suit for defamation you need damages. Provable damages in this case would center on the value of the airtime Swift was deprived of to speak about her recordings. Expert witnesses would testify as to the “bump” typically witnessed after an acceptance speech in such a valuable forum. Arguably, West deprived Swift of this sales bump.

West also defamed Swift when he announced to the world, in the most damaging forum possible, that Beyonce made “one of the best videos of all time,” so obviously Swift was on stage accepting an award that she didn’t deserve- more damages.

And what of Joe Wilson’s arguably barbaric shouting, also in the most damaging forum possible, that the President was lying as he spoke to Congress and the American people? If true, this was pure defamation and created quantifiable damages to a politician whose ability to govern and raise funds for re-election depend on his credibility.

Public figure exceptions (requiring “actual malice”) and governmental immunities aside, the interesting difference between these two cases is the ability to mount a viable defense. Truth is the best defense in any defamation case. If the defaming speech is true, it is protected by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing free speech.

Wilson, and many pundits, have probably already gone far enough to establish that a reasonable person could infer that the President was not telling the truth when he asserted that illegal aliens would not be covered under the government’s proposed health care plan. The fact that Wilson and his supporters tried to add language to the bills specifically prohibiting coverage for illegal aliens and it was removed by their opponents, and the fact that non-citizens have to be covered in some ways by the plan, at least in emergency rooms, is enough to establish a reasonable basis for Wilson’s belief that the President was indeed lying. So the apparent truth to Wilson’s beliefs is a good faith defense to being punished for stating them in public.

On the other hand, Kanye’s attempt to prove truth as a defense to his defamation troubles would be impossible. He would have to spend all his energy trying to argue for minimal damages.

What will actually happen? Wilson’s outburst has already put the spotlight on this issue for his supporters so it was an effective, albeit rude. Kanye will return to next year’s VMAs to a mindless standing ovation as a prodigal son, and security will be stepped up a bit on the side of the stage.

But let us consider the forum of a Presidential address to Congress. Every time the President says anything of significance, true or not, his supporters are allowed to go nuts and violate decorum. For Wilson and his colleagues to just sit there and not point out an opposing sentiment representing at least the country, every time, may be too much to ask.

Is it too much to ask a hip-hop “musician” formed by the juvenile arrogance of a genre with almost zero positive contributions to popular culture to resist the easy prey of a humble and traditionally wholesome artist like Taylor Swift. Actually it is too much to ask, way too much.