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Harming someone's reputation in speech with falsehoods is known as slander, and doing the same thing in writing is known as libel (which sometimes includes speech as well). Any ordinary citizen who can claim to have suffered harm as a result of such defamation may sue. So why aren't politicians suing all the time? Because an exception is made for "public persons" (a category that includes most other celebrities as well), who must also prove that any such statement was made with "reckless disregard for the truth". And although, even by that standard, public persons are defamed all the time, most of them have decided that it's better to just grin and bear it.
Synonyms
Examples of defamation in a Sentence
Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 23 Nov. 2024
Wilson’s team had argued that the defamation case should be dismissed because Wilson’s claims were in the public interest.
—Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone, 22 Nov. 2024
Trump’s imminent presidency will not get him out of his civil cases, however, and the president-elect’s appeals of rulings against him in Carroll’s two defamation cases and the civil fraud trial against Trump and his associates will continue.
—Alison Durkee, Forbes, 22 Nov. 2024
The Onion attorneys say that deal would result in the highest payout to the other creditors, including a smaller group of families who won a separate defamation suit against Jones in Texas and did not offer to forgo any proceeds.
—Tovia Smith, NPR, 19 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Defamation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defamation. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
defamation
noun
W. L. Prosser and W. P. Keeton
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