Libel laws are what we got when we outlawed dueling.
This quote from a post at The Corner shows why libel suits don’t work; they spread the “contagion” rather than quarantining it.
And most importantly, it is too funny not to re-post:
Dr. Michael Mann, Director of the Earth Systems Science Center at Penn State University, is suing the climate change denier Dr. Tim Ball and the think tank/web site Frontier Centre for Public Policy for libel – and particularly for an interview in which, in answer to the question, “Do you think anyone will be prosecuted for fraud?” Ball responds, “Michael Mann at Penn State should be in the State Pen, not Penn State.”
