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BGonline.org Forums
Why has no one posted this?
Posted By: joe freedman In Response To: Why has no one posted this? (Bill Riles)
Date: Monday, 12 April 2010, at 9:29 p.m.
I'm not a 1st amendment lawyer, but my dim recollection from law school is that false written and published accusations that damage the target's reputation are libelous, although some malicious intent may be required, depending on whether the accused is a public figure. I don't think, however, that a corporation can sue for libel.
2. Selective omissions of stories is troubling, and it may convey a false impression to the reader. False omission within a story is even more troubling, in my estimation. So, for example, if a newspaper accurately reports that Country A fired missles into country B, without first reporting that Country B had fired missiles, or in some other way provoked the attack, that would be misleading, although not exactly a lie.
Do I trust the Times (or any other news source) to report ALL relevant news? No. It's not possible, and there are biases at work that determine which stories a reporter covers. But if the NYT reported evidence showing that X had murdered his wife, I would take it seriously, because it would mean that the Times had groundtruthed the story enough to determine it fit to print. (Of course, there have been some failings in this regard.) The NY Post has no such reputation for careful fact checking, etc.
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