The ongoing scandal involving the Murdoch media empire should remind us how the pursuit of sleaze begets bad journalism.  When a newspaper, television or radio station, or blog goes out of its way to feed the public’s most prurient interests, it does itself and its followers a disservice.

A number of years ago, our public relations firm represented a prominent Miami professional who was falsely accused of beating his wife.  We knew that the truth would come out in court and we did our best to warn reporters about their responsibility to remain objective until both sides were heard.  As a result, most media covered the criminal case with balance … but one popular newspaper columnist decided that exaggerating the charges against our client would make her readers happy.

In every column for weeks on end, this columnist found new, salacious ways of describing the charges against our client.  She repeated the allegations of the self-proclaimed “victim” whenever possible in the most lengthy, lurid manner. Some of her columns also included nasty, unsubstantiated rumors about the defendant, which further assailed his character.

After several days of trial, it became evident that the wife’s assault charges were malicious lies to generate a large divorce settlement after the criminal trial.  The ensuing divorce proceedings were swift and quiet, away from the prying eyes of the media

Somehow, the columnist never covered the “not guilty” verdict, nor did she apologize for her baseless campaign against our client.  She just moved on to the next scandal.  The desire for provocative headlines had replaced any semblance of good journalistic judgment, smearing a good man’s reputation.

Our firm has represented a number of other individuals, businesses and institutions publicly accused of wrongdoing over the years.  Some were innocent and others were guilty.  Some were treated fairly by the media and others were treated to the type of sensational tabloid reporting that strays from the truth.

Reporters and editors who practice this type of ugly journalism do more than tarnish prominent people.  They do a disservice to their readers or viewers, and feed public skepticism about the honesty of the Fourth Estate.

By David Stiefel