When I taught journalism at West Virginia University, I always included a class on libel and how reporters can avoid getting sued for it. To drive that point home, I used a real-life story about one of my journalism students whose first job after graduation was working for a small daily in West Virginia. He had been given a juicy tip about a local veterinarian who had sent naked pictures of himself to a minor and requested some in return. His sources said there were cell phone pictures of the alleged crime [it’s against the law to send sexually explicit content to minors], but the reporter wasn’t able to get a hold of them. He wrote a story based on several anonymous sources, including the fact that police were looking into the matter, but he did not to mention the cell phone pictures since he hadn’t seen them. He also reached out to the veterinarian, who denied everything. But then his editors got a hold of the story and made it more salacious, mentioning the existence of the naked pictures and implying that the veterinarian was a pedophile. The story ran as edited and the veterinarian promptly sued the paper and my student for libel. I remember getting a panicked call from him one afternoon; he couldn’t believe what was happening to him.
The libel suit dragged on for months, and in the end the paper’s lawyers used the discovery process to show that the defendant really had sent a minor naked cell phone pictures. The judge dismissed the case, since the paper had in essence been telling the truth, and as is usually the case, truth is the best defense against libel. But the verdict didn’t come soon enough to save my student’s career. He left the newspaper under a cloud, vowing never to return to journalism.
So what could he have done differently? As I tell my students, there are several things reporters can do when there’s a dispute over changes in their stories. First, they should try to explain to their immediate editor why the edits introduced inaccuracies and should not be allowed to stand. If that doesn’t work, they can always go above the immediate editor and make their case to his or her superior. And if that fails, they can ask for their byline to be removed from the story. Finally, they can threaten to quit if the story runs.
It’s very difficult, of course, for journalists, particularly young reporters who are just trying to get their careers off the ground, to stand their ground against the boss. This is particularly true in this era of click-bait journalism when some editors care more about clicks than they do about good journalism or the truth. No one wants to have a reputation as a troublemaker; I learned this the hard way when I complained about the placement of my first investigative story for The Miami Herald; you can read about that incident in my previous blog and other times my outspokenness got me into trouble in my memoir, Brassy Broad: How one Journalist helped pave the way to#MeToo.
As I’ve also learned, however, sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand, because being sued for libel is a far worse fate than alienating an editor or two. And that’s why I recommend that as soon as you are gainfully employed by a news outlet, you should start saving up for your very own F*ck you Fund. Because there may come a time, as my WVU student discovered, when you need to stand your ground, and if it comes to it, threaten to walk out the door.
