In
today’s society, everywhere you go there always seems to be news going around,
whether it’s about a celebrity, or an important world event, someone is always
talking about it. However, there are times when the truth can be stretched a
little to far and becomes s lie that can end up hurting someone in the long
run. This is typically known as slander and libel.
Slander is defined as, “the action or crime of
making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation” (freedictionary.com).
Libel is defined as, “a false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or
pictures, that damages a person's reputation” (freedictionary.com). In simple
terms, they are both untrue statements about a person that is said or written
to intentionally hurt their reputation. Thankfully,
there are laws that protect people from this. In each circumstance, the victim
needs to show the harm done by what was written or said. Also, they sometimes
may need to show proof that the speaker or writer truly intended to harm the
other person. This can sometimes be a little harder to do since the person who
wrote or spoke the false statement can deny it and argue they didn’t know it
was wrong.
It’s
also more difficult for a celebrity to defend their case versus a private
individual. A good example of this would be professional soccer player, David
Beckham’s attempted 25-million dollar lawsuit against InTouch magazine for
libel and slander. According to Infringement Nation, “the magazine published a
story that alleged Beckham cheated on his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria
Beckham, with a New York prostitute.” InTouch even quoted the prostitute Beckham
alleged cheated with as saying, “Beckham paid her and another prostitute
$10,000 for a one-night stand in New York in August 2007, the year he joined
the Galaxy” (Jones). After the prostitute was interviewed for the story she was
then also added as a party to the lawsuit. So back to public figures versus private
figures, since Beckham is a celebrity, he had to show actual malice to obtain
his claim. However, the judge who was over his case decided that Beckham was
not able to establish it.
In
other words, if you’re a celebrity and you get something said about you that is
completely untrue and ends up ruining your reputation, you just have to deal
with it sometimes. So is this fair? Of course if it were you in the situation
you would agree it wasn’t. Some argue
that celebrities choose to be in the spotlight all the time and should already
know people are always watching them. People go as far as saying or writing
something false about celebrities just to get an incentive out of it.
As
journalists, we should always be careful when writing anything over a person or
organization. Like we discussed in class, one should always back up any opinion
with facts. You never just want to state your own opinion about something or
someone without having a reason as to why you said it. Also, when quoting
someone, always make sure to repeat the quote back to the person in case you
didn’t hear correctly the first time. One little word can make a huge
difference and sometimes change the whole meaning of a statement. One other
thing to be careful about is the use of clips or news articles. It’s never a
good idea to use them if they defaming someone. As journalists and young
professionals, we never want to be in a situation where we get accused for the
use of slander or libel.
When we think about it, one wouldn’t
have to worry about libel and slander if people never invaded each other’s
privacy. According our class lectures,
privacy is defined as “the right to be left alone or the right to control
information about one’s personal life.” There are four types of privacy:
intrusion, appropriation, false light and public disclosure of embarrassing
private facts. With there being four types of privacy, one would think it’s
something that is protected in the Constitution of the United States.
Surprisingly, the word privacy is nowhere to be found in the U.S Constitution. Some say this is “because
the Constitution isn't about what people can do; it's about what government
can do” (Browne). When dealing with privacy, there are certain things the
public has the right to know but people also have the right to be left alone
when it comes to certain things. For example, back in 2006, The White House had
to explain to the public for Laura Bush when she initially refused to reveal
that she had a skin cancer tumor removed from her right shin. Since she was not an elected official at the
time, “she was under no obligation to disclose something that was not
life-threatening” (Cochran).
So
since it was not life threatening, Laura Bush did not think it was necessary to
tell the public. She wasn’t trying to hide the fact either; “she simply
remained silent until a reporter asked about the bandage below her right knee”
(Cochran).
In
my opinion, since we aren’t really guaranteed privacy, we just have to be really
careful with what information we choose to share with others now days. We
should also be careful of what we say so that we don’t get charged with slander
or libel. As journalists, we should always respect people’s privacy and
understand where the line is not to cross it.
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