Media Law

I was not looking forward to reading this chapter. Media law: it just sounds boring. And while, yes, it wasn't the most interesting chapter, there were a few interesting little nuggets.

It's interesting that one defense a journalist can uses in a libel case is "privilege." Not a journalist's privilege to say whatever he or she likes, but the privilege to report on the remarks of public officials -- remarks that may be false or defamatory. Public officials have absolute privilege to speak freely about government and government proceedings, and journalists are free to report on what they say.

This implies that public officials have a firm understanding of social issues and citizen concerns in regard to their government. I find this funny since so many public officials prove incompetent and unable to understand and accurately describe the inner-workings of government. Reporters can put quotation marks around something absolutely absurd that a public official said and use "Hey, but he said it, not me" as their defense. I like this. I think it's important to report on the false and defamatory claims and opinions of public officials to reveal their political ineptitude...but I never really considered that their right to say what they wish could be used to protect reporters' rights.

This chapter also discussed shield laws, but only briefly. I know that there has been much discussion about shield laws in the media lately, and this is a topic that I'd like to discuss further in class.