Jane E. Kirtley
Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, and Director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and affiliated faculty member, Law School, University of Minnesota.
Parts of this essay were adapted from the author’s lecture, “Uncommon Law: The Past, Present and Future of Libel in America,” delivered at the 2019 Reynolds School of Journalism First Amendment Forum at the University of Nevada in Reno, on April 23, 2019, and from her article Getting to the Truth: Fake News, Libel Laws, and “Enemies of the American People” published in Vol. 43, No. 4 of Human Rights Magazine. The author would like to thank Silha Center Research Assistants Scott Memmel, Sarah Wiley, and Jonathan Anderson for their invaluable research assistance.