Alan Dershowitz is suing CNN for doctoring a recording so as to deceive its viewers into believing that he said exactly the opposite of what he actually said during this year's Senate impeachment proceedings. Pictured: Dershowitz speaks in the US Senate during impeachment proceedings, on January 27, 2020. (Photo by Senate Television via Getty Images)

I love the First Amendment, I support the First Amendment, I have litigated cases defending the First Amendment. I have written and taught about the First Amendment. And I was a law clerk for the Supreme Court when it rendered its landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan , which "protects media even when they print false statements about public figures, as long as the media did not act with 'actual malice.'"

But I also understand the limitations of the First Amendment. Freedom of speech is designed to promote the marketplace of ideas. It is not a license for giant media companies to deliberately and maliciously defame citizens, even public figures. So when CNN made a decision to doctor a recording so as to deceive its viewers into believing that I said exactly the opposite of what I actually said, that action was not protected by the First Amendment. Here is what CNN did.

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