Quantcast

Search our Archives!


Advertisement


The God Blog

February 6, 2012 | 1:37 pm

Defamatory to associate Romney with Sikh temple?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg


Photo

Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India. Photo by Wikipedia/Julijan Nyča

Last month, Jay Leno showed a slide of Mitt Romney’s “summer home.” In fact, it was Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, a shrine of the Sikh faith. And now Leno and NBC are being sued over it.

From Reuters and TheWrap:

Dr. Randeep Dhillon, who does business as Bol Punjabi All Regions Community Organization, claims that Leno “hurt the sentiments of all Sikh people in addition to those of the plaintiff” with his joke. Dhillon further claims that Leno’s joke “clearly exposes plaintiff, other sikhs and their religion to hatred, contempt, ridicule and obloquy because it falsely portrays the holiest place in the Sikh religion as a vacation resort owned by a non-Sikh.”

Was the joke false? Obviously. Was it funny? Maybe. But was it libel? I can’t possibly imagine how.

Libel pertains to false statements of fact. Parody doesn’t count. Just ask Jerry Falwell. (Well ... you can’t actually.) Did anybody seriously believe that the above image was of Romney’s summer home?

The lawsuit also raises interesting questions about whether Dhillon and other Sikhs think that it’s defamatory to be associated with Mitt Romney. I know that Romney appears to have the GOP nomination in hand, but can he really win the White House without the Sikh vote?

Tracker Pixel for Entry
The Jewish Journal believes that great community depends on great conversation. So, jewishjournal.com provides a forum for insightful voices across the political and religious spectrum. Bloggers are not employees of The Jewish Journal, and their opinions are their own. Our entire blog policy is here. Please alert us to any violations of our policy by clicking here. (editor@jewishjournal.com). If you'd like to join our blogging community, email us. (webmaster@jewishjournal.com).

More from JewishJournal.com

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

Publication

JewishJournal.com reserves the right to use your comment in our weekly print publication.



About this Blog

Blog Home
About the Blogger(s)
Contact

RSS


Blog Archive






Newspaper

Serving a community of 600,000, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is the largest Jewish weekly outside New York City. Our award-winning paper reaches over 150,000 educated, involved and affluent readers each week. Subscribe here.

© Copyright 2013 Tribe Media Corp.
All rights reserved. JewishJournal.com is hosted by Nexcess.net. Homepage design by Koret Communications.
Widgets by Mijits. Site construction by Hop Studios.

counter fake hit page