ABSTRACT
The authors work very fast in the news industry and sometimes they will find there are mere minutes between the time they write something and it hitting the air. There will be mistakes. We are human. If they happen, they need to be corrected; immediately and prominently. Being careless, rushing, doing a sloppy job of fact-checking, or because of a personal bias against someone or something is not only unethical, it can also result in legal problems, not just for the station but for us as an individual as well. Defamation is the action of damaging the character or good reputation of an individual or a group by spreading false information about them. Libel pertains to doing this in writing, while slander protects someone from injury by something that is spoken. Defamation laws vary between the states, so each time take a job in a new state we need to make ourself aware of that state's laws.
