On Apr 11, 2011, at 2:34 PM, turquoiseb wrote: >> If people asked him, he wasn't breaking any laws in >> stating his opinion. Do you need a license now to >> have opinions? > > There may, in fact, be a place in future law for > the "potential societal impact" of things expressed > as opinion. For example, if you or I or pretty much > anyone on this forum (which, as I suggested, prob- > ably reaches a total of 20 people weekly) said, > "Smoke cigarettes all you want, because they don't > cause cancer," there is pretty much no harm, no foul. > Nobody cares what we say, or the fact that we said it. > > But what if Oprah said it?
What if she did? I've never watched her show, but I gather she gives her opinion every day on a variety of topics. Has there ever been a lawsuit against her? Successful? There was that brouhaha with the beef industry after she said she wouldn't eat hamburgers anymore, but as far as I can remember it went nowhere. Nor did people stop eating hamburgers. > What if a person whose words thousands (and in MMY's > case tens of thousands) of people considered synonymous > with the "word of God" said it? Oprah, like MMY, is a private individual not licensed to give professional advice in any field, right? If someone wants to give her, his or anyone else's words magic powers, that's their decision. > When *he* says, "Don't > have anything to do with Western medecine," (which he > did, in public and on tape, numerous times), it has > more of a potential societal impact than if we nobodys > said it. Just sayin'. If you say so, Barry. But I don't see it. Sal
