# Members of the Press - Crime to make up stories

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/members-of-the-press-crime-to-make-up-stories/237877>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 2, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/members-of-the-press-crime-to-make-up-stories/237877 "2004-04-02T07:12:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/members-of-the-press-crime-to-make-up-stories/237877/21 "2004-04-03T03:14:38Z")

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> [@kunilou](#):
>
> Of the “bottom 20%” you know of, how many do you think are deliberately dishonest, and how many are simply lousy reporters?

Put it this way: I don’t think their motivation was to put one over on a gullible public. I think they got an early taste for the positive reinforcement that comes from writing hard stories, discovered an easy way to write them, and got fabulous rewards for their shortcuts. I don’t think it started as willful deception, but it grew into that.

Still, they’re far from the most egregious. It’s not like they claimed that the Spanish sank the USS Maine or anything.

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/members-of-the-press-crime-to-make-up-stories/237877/22 "2004-04-03T04:20:32Z")

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> [@Telemark](#):
>
> It’s not clear that the courts recognize that distinction. The US tabloids (National Enquirer, etc) have broken real news stories in the past.

Not as true as you might think. I seem to recall that when Carol Burnett sued the National Enquirer way the hell back when (1980 or so?) the judge disallowed a defense that they were a newspaper and instead ruled that as a magazine they didn’t have the same protections (barring ‘absence of malice’ and libal and such) that actual newspapers did.

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/members-of-the-press-crime-to-make-up-stories/237877/23 "2004-04-05T13:56:16Z")

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> [@Jonathan Chance](#):
>
> the judge disallowed a defense that they were a newspaper and instead ruled that as a magazine they didn’t have the same protections (barring ‘absence of malice’ and libal and such) that actual newspapers did.

I’m going to have to ask for a cite here. (I could go look this case up myself, but right now I don’t have the time.) I know of _no_ principle in First Amendment jurisprudence that makes _any_ distinction between magazines and newspapers, or indeed among any _types_ of publication.

In fact, I believe that Burnett _did_ successfully prove “reckless disregard for the truth,” which is the standard for defamation of public figures.

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