Law & Ethics Exercises cont.

Play editor! Read the following draft of a college newspaper story and determine if it contains any passages that are libelous. If you believe you have found a libelous passage, describe the passage and why you believe it is libelous. Then briefly explain what you would need to do to fix it (or whether you would need to omit it) before running the story.

Here's the draft to review for libel:

A sophomore at Springfield University claims a chemistry professor has sexually harassed her.

Karen Hart, 123 Hill Hall, says the professor, George O.T. Jungle, has touched her during tutoring sessions in his office and has invited her to his apartment several times. She said she declined his invitations.

"I am having trouble in the class and I have to go see him to get help with my papers and projects," Hart said. "But I am scared to go in his office now."

Jungle denied having an improper contact with the student and threatened this newspaper with a libel suit if it published the story.

Hart said she is thinking of filing a formal complaint with the university.

"I don't know how to do that," she said. "I don't know what to do."

WHAT I WOULD DO:
First of all, I would not publish any names. George O.T. Jungle has not had any formal charges brought up against him and therefore it would be libel to print his name or her name for that matter. So I would re-write the paragraph above in red and remove the part about threatening libel, since I have omitted his name. I also would remove the last two quotes. They just don't make sense with the rest of the story. Before I ran this story, I might also have the reporter do a little more investigating, asking other students in the class questions and getting a little more information before I printed such a damaging story.