Is it a problem if the school newspaper writes about a new rule, banning certain dancing and clothing at dances and includes a photo of students from a dance before the rule was implemented?

If something is highly offensive, it just means that the average individual (a “reasonable person”) would find the content of the story or image to be highly controversial or extremely distasteful in comparison to the socially accepted status quo. Think of it this way: if your 80-year-old grandma would be upset by the content or the implication, chances are it’s highly offensive. This matters because the misrepresentation made—the assumption people are making—needs to be highly offensive for a false light claim to succeed. If it wasn’t, why would it matter that you or your friends are being implicated? 

Here, the changes to the policy were due to inappropriate clothing and behavior. Especially because the people exhibiting the behavior were kids, the content would likely be highly offensive. Because the article not only features scandalous outfits, but also suggestive dancing, the implication may be made that the people in the image are sexually promiscuous and inappropriate individuals. This kind of reputation is damaging to students and particularly offensive because it brings issues of physical intimacy to light. On the flip side, none of what the students were doing was against the rules at the time, so it could be said it is not highly offensive because at the time there were no rules forbidding what they were doing. 

Makes sense, now what about this “reckless disregard” standard? 

We’ll be honest here. Proving that the newspaper had knowledge of, or acted in reckless disregard to, any falsities in the paper or the false light it would place the students in would be very hard to do. Reckless disregard is measured by whether or not a publisher had serious doubts about the truth of the statements published and yet, published them anyways. You’ve mentioned that the article doesn’t actually state anything false. Knowing this, it might be hard to convince anyone that the newspaper had doubts about any characteristics the article would push onto the students. After all, what they were doing was done before any rules were made—the students weren’t doing anything wrong! 

Let’s also quickly mention libel. 

First and foremost, it’s important to remember that truth is an absolute defense to most claims, like libel or slander. So if the students can succeed in showing that the article implies a lie, then they can try and get the newspaper for libel. If you want to read more about libel and other types of defamation, we really recommend checking out other Q & As. 

There were no literal factual inaccuracies in this article, but the students were trying to say that the photo implied a lie (a.k.a. that these students caused the problem)? Let’s be real here, it’s unlikely that anyone reading the article would believe that the students in the photo were especially responsible for the rule change. While the article may show a picture, it does not say that a particular group of students was responsible for the rule change, so why would anyone assume it was those unluckily photographed students? 

And even if some implied lie was found, just like in our above discussion, the students would likely fail to prove that the newspaper departed from the standards of a reasonably careful publisher. So, as much as we hate to be the bearer of bad news, we don’t think libel would work out too well for this kind of case either.