What's the difference between gossip and libel?

Gossip


Definition:

  • (n.) A sponsor; a godfather or a godmother.
  • (n.) A friend or comrade; a companion; a familiar and customary acquaintance.
  • (n.) One who runs house to house, tattling and telling news; an idle tattler.
  • (n.) The tattle of a gossip; groundless rumor.
  • (v. t.) To stand sponsor to.
  • (v. i.) To make merry.
  • (v. i.) To prate; to chat; to talk much.
  • (v. i.) To run about and tattle; to tell idle tales.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Trawling through the private telephone conversations of royals, politicians and celebrities in the hope of picking up scandalous gossip is not seen as legitimate news gathering and the techniques of entrapment which led to the recent Pakistani match-fixing scandal , although grudgingly admired in this particular case, are derided as manufacturing the news.
  • (2) Facebook Twitter Pinterest May dismisses reports of frosty dinner with EU chief as ‘Brussels gossip’ The EU delegation are said to have wondered whether Davis might still be in his post following the general election.
  • (3) Ministers can glean vital gossip about cabinet reshuffles if they keep on the right side of their drivers, who form the most high-class grapevine in Britain as they wait in the Speaker's courtyard at Westminster while their charges vote in the Commons.
  • (4) Others will point out that this is a case of pot calling kettle black as Wolff is himself a famous peddler of tittle-tattle – the aggregator website that he cofounded, Newser, even has a section called "Gossip".
  • (5) That's the kind of insider gossip you get when you're a media player like me.
  • (6) Similarly literary and pensive was Clouds of Sils Maria , in which France's Olivier Assayas combined some modish themes — the internet, celebrity gossip, superhero movies — with some hoarier themes regarding the theatre-cinema divide, ageing and female rivalry.
  • (7) Lord Justice Leveson's court was packed with lawyers, journalists and computer screens, which made it look like a City trading floor, and which – in a way – is the Leveson story: what price privacy, what price the risk of publishing gossip without checking it, what price tip-off fees about the rich and famous that might be worth £5,000 to a police or NHS worker – or the £500,000 (so top injunction solicitor, Graham Shears, told the hearing) for bedding a David Beckham?
  • (8) He likes the policy bit of politics rather more than the showbusiness, and there is no fodder for gossip in his personal life.
  • (9) A few weeks ago, myriad gossip sites published photos of the Malibu home he just bought, going through the place room by room.
  • (10) A leading member of Voronin's party, Mark Tkachuk, told reporters the claims were "fairy tales" and "low-life gossip".
  • (11) It wasn't just women who gossiped in the queues for water: it was a community event.
  • (12) As a result of the disastrous supreme court Citizens United decision,” Sanders said, “billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates.” He also appealed for a campaigns without “gossip”, saying: “I’ve never run a negative ad in my life … I believe that in a democracy what elections are about are serious debates over serious issues.” “This is not the Red Sox versus the Yankees.” Progressive activists welcomed his entry into the race but continued to urge Warren, who is seen as a more polished performer, to compete against Clinton as well.
  • (13) Smith responded by saying he would not “indulge in gossip”.
  • (14) How can free expression and the yearning for a private life be protected in this murky arena of a gossip free-for-all?
  • (15) Before what is bound to be a gossip-fuelled party conference season in which Lib Dem flirtation with Labour (and vice versa) will be added to the mix of plotting, irresistible visions of the future home into view.
  • (16) But with no arrests and no obvious external suspects, the girls' family have found themselves the subject of local gossip, newspaper speculation and background briefings intended to place them firmly in the frame.
  • (17) Matters of the utmost importance – such as inequality, poverty, exploitation, corporate crime and the destruction of the natural world – are neglected or marginalised, while trivial political gossip is elevated to the status of major news.
  • (18) According to reports , the Goody wedding issue of Richard Desmond's celebrity gossip magazine sold 1.8 million copies, more than three times its average circulation of 508,504 in the second half of 2008.
  • (19) Its target is not just celebrity intrusion but bias, unfairness and gossip in the style of Private Eye and the "off Fleet Street" plethora of news-and-comment websites.
  • (20) He gossips about former colleagues and even offers theories about how to solve the developing international crisis in the Crimea – ban Russia from the Olympics, maybe.

Libel


Definition:

  • (n.) A brief writing of any kind, esp. a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.
  • (n.) Any defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.
  • (n.) A malicious publication expressed either in print or in writing, or by pictures, effigies, or other signs, tending to expose another to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. Such publication is indictable at common law.
  • (n.) The crime of issuing a malicious defamatory publication.
  • (n.) A written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of his cause of action, and of the relief he seeks.
  • (v. t.) To defame, or expose to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, by a writing, picture, sign, etc.; to lampoon.
  • (v. t.) To proceed against by filing a libel, particularly against a ship or goods.
  • (v. i.) To spread defamation, written or printed; -- with against.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Brett added companies should have to prove some financial damage – or the potential of financial damage – before they are allowed to launch a libel case.
  • (2) First, there are major vested interests, such as large corporations, foreign billionaires and libel lawyers, who will attempt to scupper reform.
  • (3) "In recent years, though, the increased threat of costly libel actions has begun to have a chilling effect on scientific and academic debate and investigative journalism."
  • (4) Aside from the fact that it is intemperate and inaccurate, it is also libelous.
  • (5) And there are plenty who think that, as our libel laws are cleaned up, smart lawyers are switching horses to privacy.
  • (6) The case, which had been going on for four years, became a cause celebre, one of a number that were used to spearhead a campaign for change to the libel laws by campaigners for freedom of speech.
  • (7) He stressed that the sister-in-law and her husband were not only accused of circulating libellously untrue stories but also of harassment of the wealthy financier.
  • (8) Polonsky is hoping to sue Lebedev for libel and is seeking damages for defamation, his lawyer Andrew Stephenson has said.
  • (9) Thousands who have confronted the possibility of a libel action have self-censored or backed down.
  • (10) He added that London remained the "libel capital of the world – the place where the rich and dodgy flock to keep their reputations intact".
  • (11) Newspapers have been lobbying hard to stave off a Leveson law of any kind, arguing that the press is already subject to laws ranging from libel to data protection and computer misuse acts to guard against illegal activities.
  • (12) Instead, NMT sued Wilmshurst in London, which has become the libel capital of the world.
  • (13) Priority has been given to applying sticking-plasters to libel law when urgent surgery is needed to regulate a tabloid newspaper industry that has been shown to have no regard for privacy or the criminal law.
  • (14) But Miller, in continuing to urge publishers to be "recognised" by the charter did refer to the "incentives", meaning a protection from the payment of legal costs for libel claimants (even if unsuccessful) and the imposition of exemplary damages (which would be very doubtful anyway).
  • (15) The inquiry originally looked as if it would be confined to the issue of "libel tourism", but it seems officials believed it would not be possible to restrict the inquiry in this way.
  • (16) His charge sheet includes numerous assaults (one against a waiter who served him the wrong dish of artichokes); jail time for libelling a fellow painter, Giovanni Baglione, by posting poems around Rome accusing him of plagiarism and calling him Giovanni Coglione (“Johnny Bollocks”); affray (a police report records Caravaggio’s response when asked how he came by a wound: “I wounded myself with my own sword when I fell down these stairs.
  • (17) The former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell was a Jekyll and Hyde character who employed a mixture of charm and menace, his libel trial against the Sun newspaper over the Plebgate affair heard.
  • (18) In a letter to Hodge on Tuesday, Duncan also claimed that Hodge, the MP for Barking, had made “undoubtedly libellous assertions” about the tax affairs of the bank’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver.
  • (19) The libel laws have been long been considered to restrict free speech.
  • (20) What about the chilling effects of libel tourism and a system that both adds cost to stories and stifles freedom of expression?