Donald Trump and his lawyers fined $1 million for ‘revenge’ lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, but you wouldn’t know that by only reading FoxNews.com
By Chris Roberts It’s news when a former president sues his opponent, and in March 2022 news organizations such as FoxNews.com placed at the top of their website the news that Donald Trump filed a $100 million lawsuit claiming that his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, were among those part of a conspiracy “to create a […]
Charleston Post and Courier vs. Battery: Reporter does the right thing and a soccer team owner overreacts
UPDATE: That didn’t take long. The United Soccer League stepped in a few hours after this happened (on April 8, 2016), and the Post & Courier has its credentials again. League president Jake Edwards’ statement spanked the club owner: “We will be taking the appropriate steps to prevent instances like this from happening again.” ************************************************************ […]
It’s legal to defame a dead person, but that does not make it ethical
By Kevin Connell When Vladlen Putistin took his case to court, his claim was clear: He wanted the information rectified and he wanted compensation for the damages. In his view, he believed the journalist’s statements in her published newspaper article defamed his father, thus justifying his decision to sue. In July 2001, Putistin sued the […]
If you publish mugshots and other arrest news, then you should follow up
It was a Gannett-owned newspaper that received near-universal condemnation in December 2012 when it built an online map that made it easy to find the addresses of people who had gun permits. The complaints came from all sides — gun owners and others worried about privacy, lawmakers who closed loopholes in New York and elsewhere, […]
What I learned from working on the Society of Professional Journalists’ new Code of Ethics
This month’s biggest personal and professional success may not make it on my tombstone, but it is a thrill to note that words I wrote are included in the Society of Professional Journalists’ new code of ethics. Delegates of the nation’s largest journalism association approved the code on Sept. 6, 2014, nearly 18 years after […]
How the updated SPJ code of ethics helps justify one newspaper’s stand against naming a sex-crime suspect
Making a decision about ethics sometimes means doing your own thing while everyone else is doing something else — in public. One news organization did this in reporting the arrest of a 49-year-old man charged with possession of child pornography in Calhoun County, Ala. Multiple news organizations reported information provided by the Alabama Bureau of […]