Information labels

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

Facts, claims, opinions, sarcasm, satire, parody, and hyperbole should be clearly labeled.

Intent:

To inform the audience of what they are receiving. There’s a difference between a piece that is mostly opinion and has some facts in it, and a piece that is mostly facts and has some opinion in it. The facts and opinions should be clearly labeled, and the overall nature of the piece should be clearly labeled as news (facts), story (facts with context), opinion (such as editorial or letter to the editor), or entertainment.

Discussion:

This is already being done by many writers and publishers, but not everyone follows this practice.

When Tucker Carlson was sued for slander in 2020, lawyers for Fox News argued in court that a reasonable person would understand that the host’s statements were “loose, figurative or hyperbolic.” Because the word “news” is in the name of the organization, it’s a label of the overall content the audience can expect. Therefore, it should clearly label anything that isn’t news. It’s obvious that “loose, figurative or hyperbolic” statements and leading questions are not facts, and therefore are not news. Carlson’s segments on Fox News were not labeled as “entertainment”. Therefore, it was misleading people. However, the judge in that case, Mary Kay Vyskocil, disagreed, writing “The Court concludes that the statements are rhetorical hyperbole and opinion commentary intended to frame a political debate, and, as such, are not actionable as defamation.” The problem with that is that the show in question, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was aired by an organization named “Fox News” and had “commentary” and “debate” about current events and politics. Everything about the context, including the seriousness of the host, communicates to the audience that they are receiving facts and truthful opinions, when in reality they were not.

The Onion is a known entertainment publication providing satire and parody of current events in the guise of “news”. The subtitle is “America’s Finest News Source”, which is incorrect since it is not news, funny to people who know it is not news, and misleading to people who don’t know. The content is not labeled as entertainment. There have been numerous instances of people sharing articles from the Onion without context and causing an uproar about something that wasn’t even serious news to start with. The labeling is important and must be in every piece. It’s not enough to rely on the reputation of a publisher because not everyone is aware of it.

Vince McMahon, the owner of what is now called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), first publicly acknowledged in 1989 that wrestling matches organized by his company were staged when he testified before the New Jersey State Senate. He said that wrestling was not a competitive sport. McMahon testified before the New Jersey State Senate to avoid paying taxes on athletic event income, avoiding state athletic commission interference, and avoiding the need to employ medical professionals. The company was then rebranded as “sports entertainment” and renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. Still, some people believe the matches are real contests. This means there is still misdirection and the product itself needs to be more clearly labeled in some way. However, renaming the company and publicly acknowledging what some people already suspected were good first steps towards correcting the misdirection.

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