« Getting It Right : Fake News, Due Diligence and a Strange New World »

The Press Club recently hosted a panel of professionals in international journalism, investigations and reputation law titled “Getting It Right: Fake News, Due Diligence and a Strange New World.” The program featured a discussion about the true meaning of “fake news,” looking at ways to distill the facts and know where truth and fiction diverge.

Among the questions raised during the program included:

·       How often are journalists, particularly reporters who cover commerce and financial markets, targeted by those seeking to prompt a false story for competitive reasons? 

·       Do legal options exist in the United States when a company is targeted with a false story that is intended to damage its business?

·       How often do government agencies, or individual government officials, issue false reports regarding commercial entities that may be targeted for political or economic reasons? 

·       When a damaging story is disseminated by a media outlet, and the story purports to rely on anonymous sources or non-public documents, how do you get to the facts?

Moderated by John Edwards III, an editor at Bloomberg News, the program’s panelists included:

·       Matt Apuzzo, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times who has covered law enforcement and security matters for more than a decade and is the co-author of the book “Enemies Within.”

·       Mark MacDougall, a litigation partner at Akin Gump, who has been dubbed “The Cleaner” by The American Lawyer for his groundbreaking work in the field of reputational recovery. He has also been named a Litigation Trailblazer by The National Law Journal for his work in this area. (Click here to read more.) Mr. MacDougall has led numerous cases that have been widely followed by international media.

·       Stacey Mitchell, a partner at Akin Gump, who hasextensive experience in crisis management and strategic counseling, including helping clients manage the tensions in business-critical decisions.

·       Zoë Newman, managing director at Kroll who leads complex, cross-border forensic investigations into matters of fraud, corruption and potential regulatory breaches.

Not long ago, there was broad public confidence in the news media getting its facts right. But today, with the proliferation of online media and opinion-driven content, it’s harder than ever to tell what’s legitimate from what’s not — with cries of bias and even « fake news » dominating the news cycle. » However, « fake news » can mean many things : a false story planted by a business competitor, contagious fabrications on social media, a natural product of the anonymous Internet or — to some — real journalism with which you just disagree.

Please join a panel of distinguished experts in international journalism, investigations and reputation law for a lively discussion of these and other issues — and perhaps raise some of your own. This program will be in English.

For questions, please contact Julia Studdard at +1 202.416.5008 or jstuddard@akingump.com

The program will conclude at 6 p.m. and will be followed by refreshments.

Looking forward to seeing you on this occasion.