Weaknesses of the Sullivan standard

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Weaknesses of the Sullivan standard

• It can give media organizations an incentive to
  under-invest in verification. Many false stories
  may be published, at great harm not just to
  public figures but to society. (False
  information is a public bad.)
• This in turn may lower the quality of public
  officials. A tougher standard for liability for
  libel means that media can show less care. For
  example, lower-quality organizations can now
  begin to more aggressively and carelessly cover
  politicians character issues e.g., wild
  rumors about Presidents Clinton and Bush.
  Particularly if high-quality politicians have
  high valuations of privacy or they value their
  reputations highly, they may be deterred from
  going into politics. Paradoxically, Sullivan can
  cause a selection effect for who gets into
  politics that makes governance worse.
• The definition of public figures is too broad.