Defame Me Not!

By: Matt Mashaintonio

BLUE BELL, PA--We hear about it all the time, a big celebrity is suing some tabloid for “defamation of character,” but what does that really mean? The real question is “what is defamation?” 

     Joseph Turow in his book Media Today defines defamation as, “a highly disreputable or false statement about a living person or organization that causes injury to the reputation that a substantial group of people hold for that person or entity.” In simpler terms, this means that deformation is when someone either says or prints something that is false about a person or organization that can harm their reputation. There are two types of deformation as I alluded to above. There is libel, written defamation, and slander, spoken defamation. 

     All people are vulnerable to defamation but the general population is split into two different factions, public figures and private people. Public figures are seen as people who are of the public and open themselves up to defamation.  For example, politicians, actors, professional athletes and authors. Private people are people like you, the average person who is not in the public eye. 

     You might think that you will never be a victim of defamation.  But let’s say you were reading an article in your local newspaper that says you were involved with a group of students from your school that broke into the school’s computer lab and stole a computer. Now you are associated with a crime you did not commit, you are now a victim of defamation.   

     According to the Associated Press Style Book, there are five things you would need to prove to win your defamation case:

1.    A defamatory statement was made. (You were one the students that stole a computer.)

2.    The defamatory statement was written, or said, as fact not opinion. (The newspaper said you were definitely involved and that there is no speculation about it.)

3.    The defamatory statement is false. (You have proof you were visiting a relative in a different city at the time of the theft.) 

4.    The defamation statement is about the plaintiff. (The newspaper was talking about you.) 

5.    The defamatory statement was published with the requisite degree of fault. (The newspaper checked their facts and said you were definitely there, or just lied about which students were there.) 

     Now, there is another side to this coin.  What if you are the one that says the defamatory statement?  Then what do you do?  My number one suggestion is to make sure it never happens.

     As media creators, we have a duty to only report on the truth. Fact check everything you can before you send your article to print. Have someone else double check your facts and sources. If you are unsure of something, don’t print it. 

     Stop defamation before it happens.