A Golden Reputation

When researching past libel suits, I found it interesting how many headlines resemble “Court drops libel case”. Thus when I can across the article from 2001 in the LA Times “Newspaper Loses Libel Suit”, it immediately caught my attention. In this particular case, which began in 1990, a California business man sued a Santa Barbara paper with libel for falsely linking him to two criminal investigations which he was once investigated but never charged. The investigation sent his partner to prison. At the end of the article, the reporter quotes Sandra Baron, executive director of the Libel Defense Resource Center in New York saying, "There are a lot of serious principles involved in libel cases," she said. Two reputations are at stake, not just the person filing the suit but the news organization being sued. I think this is really important thing to remember in libel suits. It is not just the person who sues but the paper’s reputation as well. It is also important to remember a reputation is something very valuable and can take a lifetime to make and a moment to destroy.
A newspaper’s reputation is so important, that some newspapers will do anything to protect it. In an article in the Chicago Tribune, a Kane county newspaper sued the Illinois Supreme Court system after they lost a libel suit with Chief Justice Robert Thomas. They claim they did not have a fair trial as Thomas is the head of the court system. It is important not to accuse libel lightly, just as it is important for the paper not to accuse a person of a crime lightly.
As Warren Buffet says, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about it, you will do things different.”