Libel. TMI. Writing.

Libel… a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means.
You would think we wouldn’t need to learn about libel as journalists, because it is our job to be truthful and report only the facts. But we do need to learn about it, because it still happens in the news. I’m sure most of it isn’t on purpose; people may print false information because of bad reporting or just plain misinformation.
It is good to know that if something ever does happen where someone doesn’t like what was written about them in the article, the legal system will favor the journalist and help them out. But to avoid it at all costs, journalists should just strive to be truthful at all times.

I was very comforted reading The Accident at Three Mile Island. I was comforted because when we did the exercise in class and wrote the article I got a lot of information incorrect, and to know that journalists who actually reported on the story had a hard time with it makes me feel a little better.
Not that it’s a good thing that journalists can misinterpret information, but people don’t realize how hard it is to write a story about something of that matter, when you don’t have a scientific background.
The report tells us that since we don’t know what is possible or not possible, and what is right and wrong, we as journalists have no choice but to report each statement and try to give it the weight that it may deserve and let the public judge.

Honestly, the readings of Orwell and The Five Characteristics of Academic or Scholarly prose…… I found very confusing. I know the English language is “bad” as Orwell states and since we are journalists we need to fix it.. if anyone had problems with writing (such as myself) The Elements of Style is a good reference guide for help and it is much easier to read than Orwell’s article.