🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5b4nij$2c4@news1.panix.com>,
Alan Blattberg <alanb@panix.com> wrote:
>reicja00@dons.ac.usfca.edu (Jake Reichert) spake thusly:
>
>>You can only sue for liable if the perpetrator
>>knowingly spreads false information about someone.  If they didn't
>>know they were intentionally giving out false information, they aren't
>>at fault.  Liable is pretty difficult to prove.

Actually, as I remember from Journalism classes and again from government
classes, libel has four aspects which must be present.

Identification, defemation, publication and malice.

The first three are pretty easy.
Identification - identifying a specific person or group either by name,
picture or otherwise.
defamation - What you write (libel is written, slander is spoken) must have
been defamitory, derogatory or in otherways attacking someone's character or
perceived to attack someone's character.
publication - The information must be publicized.  Whether that is printed
in a newspaper or in a leaflet dropped from a helicopter over Times Square
at midnight.

The last one, malice, is the tough one to prove.
It can be defined loosly as reckless disregard for the truth or failing to
check enough sources.
If a defamitory fact about someone is published and the author checked the
fact in a number of different, independent, reputable sources and did the
best darn job of finding out information as possible, then there's no
malice.  This one is a judgement call, so its the tough one to prove.


Ruth Ann

____
Standard disclaimers.  These are my opinions and in no way reflect the
opinions of Georgia Tech, Gulfstream Aerospace or anyone else.


-- 
Ruth Ann Francis - A misplaced Michigander at GA Tech   
Georgia Tech Aerospace Engineering Major             gt0163c@acme.gatech.edu
Co-op Gulfstream Aerospace                 rfrancis@voyager.eng.gulfaero.com
"Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning" -Peter Pan