Guilty until Proven Innocent or is it Innocent until Proven Guilty? Even when someone is proven guilty does there exist "a public's right to know" all the details and facts or is this something that is not a good enough reason to publish and discuss stories and people?
Most media sources promote the public's right to know as being supreme to so many negative impacts that might result in publicizing certain info. Negative media stories definitely sell news and attract web traffic and perhaps even help certain media outlets stay ahead of the game.
When it comes to our own small world and our own social circle the questions don't really change. To what degree are we meant to be mindful of how we talk about others? Do we have to be careful or does it not matter? Perhaps the other person shouldn't have acted wrongly if they don't want others talking about them behind their backs.
Judaism takes a very definite path when it comes to these matters, which is highlighted in this week's double Torah portion of Tazria & Metzora. In it, the Torah describes the Tzaraat affliction, symptomatic of a spiritual malady which was negative and slanderous speech about others. When a person was impacted by this, they usually had to spend several days outside the community, to reflect, improve and think about the power of their speech.
Regardless of the large amount of details that are connected to this idea, the tremendous importance and emphasis that the Torah places on positive speech and refrain from negative speech, surely highlight the power of our speech, writings, and conversations in our social and work life.
Obviously there are times when public safety or maintaining law and order might require publicizing certain info. Yet the Torah wants us to remember that our default setting should be positive talk about others and not negative talk. Never underestimate what a compliment and good word can do for someone, it can change a person’s day and even their life text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A deeper way of looking at this, might be the way Chassidic thought suggests, that when contemplate our internal and spiritual oneness and reflect on the things that bind us together, then negative talk doesn't even have to be on our radar. Instead, we can harness that deeper realization of our commonality and focus on positive and constructive talk, versus negative and slanderous talk.
Shabbat Shalom