Prevention and a pound of cure

Jim Hagarty
Wandering Mind
A man called the Gazette last week to inform us that he was going to sue us.

This is not an entirely unheard of situation and though it raises an eyebrow or two, it’s kind of an occupational hazard. Any organization that publishes stories about people whether in print or through the airwaves is prone to this sort of thing. Not everyone is pleased with every word and combinations of words that we toss out into the public realm.

But what was unusual about this man’s call was that he promised to sue us over something we hadn’t published. This was a new wrinkle, and I have to say, it really did make me nervous. What other stories haven’t we published, I thought, that we could be sued for? I could feel a cold sweat coming on as I thought of the many things we have not written about and how the legal bills could start piling up from all the lawsuits that apparently might result from not having published them.

Then I started to fear for all those people out there who don’t own newspapers or write for them who could also be sued for what they hadn’t published. They are the ones in the real pickle. How can they publish stories, and thereby avoid lawsuits, when they are not in the business of putting out news stories in print or through broadcast?

My mind ran amok like this for a while until common sense began to prevail. Perhaps, I thought, we are entering a new age of preventative suing. Sort of like birth control for the legal system, minus any of the fun. And I could see how this proactive approach to preventing wrongdoing could also work well in other sectors of the justice system. Wouldn’t it be more prudent and probably less costly if police would charge us with speeding before we get behind the wheel or charge us with assault before we even get a chance to put up our dukes? Couldn’t bylaw officers issue us parking tickets before we even neglect to put the money in the meter? Maybe it would be a good idea if mortgage companies repossessed our homes before we defaulted on our loans.

But here’s the funny thing. Lawsuits for defamation of character, which newspapers usually face, are lodged on the presumption that someone is guilty of something – the paper that did the publishing, the writer who wrote the story, etc. It’s been my limited experience of 31 years, however, that the guilty ones are often the ones launching the lawsuits. Maybe it’s human nature, but most people are a lot more afraid of the truth than they are of lies. If someone tells the neighbours that I am secretly married to a second wife and have another family in another city, and these are outright lies, the story is good for a laugh. But if I’m actually not working late all those nights and in fact am sitting in a living room in London watching TV with my other kids, it’s a safe bet I won’t be happy with anyone who’s spreading the rumours.

So, to tell a journalist you are going to sue his paper for a story it hasn’t run produces this result: It makes him think that you are actually guilty of something and that maybe he should look into it.

Let’s call it preventative snooping.