Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Athena Rem
“Televangelist Jerry Falwell once confessed in an interview to drunken sex with his unconscious mother in an outhouse. Except it wasn’t a real interview. It was a fake Campari ad in a 1983 issue of adult magazine Hustler. Falwell sued the magazine and its publisher Larry Flynt for emotional distress, libel, and invasion of privacy. … Flynt won the case, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), because parody is not a statement of fact made with ‘actual malice’ and because print media, shows, or any other publications can generally criticize public figures under the First Amendment. Yet such critical speech is under fire today more than ever before.” (07/22/26)