Word: factualism
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Despite all the fuss, the issue doesn't seem very complicated. "X said Y" is a factual assertion. If X didn't say Y, it is a false assertion. But falsehood is just one part of a libel case. You have to prove the falsehood was defamatory. You have to prove you've been harmed. These constraints will take care of most of the nightmare scenarios journalists worry about, such as being sued for "cleaning up" quotes. Above all, if X is a public figure, you have to prove the misquote was committed with "reckless disregard for the truth...
...statement seething with outrage: "The flagrant and absurd falsehoods . . . clearly exceed the bounds of decency." A phalanx of Reagan friends and former advisers lashed out at the book, both in whole and in parts. Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, charged that there are 20 factual errors in the passages involving her alone. She described the purported Nancy Reagan-Frank Sinatra tryst in the White House as "pure horse manure." Michael Reagan, Nancy's stepson, also jumped to her defense. "Gossip is one thing, and smut is another," he said. "This is smut...
...tiny, rigorous visions never do. By making realities collide, he slips you into a parallel world whose features are both precise and ineffably odd, where things are not what they seem. Ernst loved images that enumerated things: mechanical and scientific drawing, illustrations from 1900 boulevardier magazines, old catalogs. Their factual neutrality made their paradoxes weirder. Sometimes this serves mainly lyrical ends, as in the Klee-like plant-personages that rear up on the tiny horizon of Always the Best Man Wins, 1920. And sometimes it discloses an erotic fury, a Dionysiac madness bursting the collar studs and corsets of life...
...Templeton's criticisms of Lee Atwater is for his "constant harping on Willie Horton." This criticism lacks of factual basis. The Willie Horton issue was originally brought up by a Democrat against Michael S. Dukakis in the primary season. When the commercial ran during the general election it was made and produced by an organization independent from the Bush campaign and from Atwater. In fact, the Bush campaign took legal action to prevent the further airing of the commercial...
Regardless, a far more important issue is respect for humanity. Even with factual accuracy and partisan politics aside, Mr. Templeton's Opinion piece falls outside the bounds of good taste. In our opinion, human decency requires respect for the dead. We don't deny Mr. Templeton's right to openly disagree with Mr. Atwater. However, a piece about the recently deceased titled "Good Riddance" is unconscionable...