1. Libel, Privacy, & Decency

2. Libel
Definition: A false attack on someone’s reputation that appears in a media outlet and leads to a loss of one’s good name, humiliation, mental suffering, or embarrassment
Libel cases are difficult
“Public” v. “private” figures

3. Libel New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) Gertz v. Robert Welch (1974)
History
Notion of “actual malice”
Proving actual malice
Gertz v. Robert Welch (1974)
Private figures and “negligence”
How the media can defend itself against libel

4. Invasion of Privacy
Intrusion on a person’s physical or mental solitude
California law, 2005: Illegal “to physically invade the privacy of the plaintiff with the intent to capture any type of visual image, sound recording, or other physical impression of the plaintiff engaging in a personal or familial activity and the physical invasion occurs in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person.”

5. Invasion of Privacy
Publishing or disclosing embarrassing personal facts
Publishing information that places someone in a false light
Using someone’s name or likeness for commercial benefit

6. Indecency & the Media FCC’s decency standard
Definition: “Language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community broadcast standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities”

7. Indecency & the Media FCC’s “profane” standard
Definition: “Language that denotes certain of those personally reviling epithets naturally tending to provoke violent resentment or [is] so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance”
Bono at Golden Globes (2003)

8. Indecency & the Media Super Bowl in 2004 FCC actions Effects on media
Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (2005)
“Fleeting” incidents
U.S. Appeals Court (2010)
Supreme Court (2012)
Effects on media

9. Military & Press

10. Prior Restraint Prior Restraint Framers of Constitution viewpoint
Near v. Minnesota (1931)
Status of prior restraint in 1800s
The case
Implications of ruling

11. Vietnam (1960s-70s) Traditional media support
U.S. media coverage early on and shift
Lessons for government and military

12. Gulf War (1991) Escorted press pools Daily news briefings
Tell press nothing
Public Opinion v. press opinion

13. Afghanistan War (2001) Internet age
Government plan: Limit information and press mobility
Benefits for U.S. and allies
U.S. news media v. government

14. Iraq War (2003)
Embedded reporters
Public opinion shift

15. Wikileaks (2006) Organization characteristics 2010 postings
Internet environment