Should YWN post the negative stories of Jews?

No they should not. The prohibitions against loshon hora, rechilus and motzei shem ra is not suspended for “newsworthy stories” or to get clicks and ad revenue.

If the story is well-documented and publicizes an issue that is useful for the community to know. Not long ago it was discouraged to publish stories about abuse, on the grounds of “lashon hara” and, “What will the wife and children do for parnossah?” and so forth. Some courageous people continued anyway, and the problem was eventually recognized and addressed, with countless innocent lives being saved from ruin.

Stories about Yidden breaking the law, if they are well-founded and not just internet-sourced, are also useful because they alert people to the fact that lawbreakers get caught. Cheating the IRS or your local zoning board isn’t a safe project (besides being against halacha), and people may be discouraged from doing it if they know that they could get caught. And those who break civil law sometimes are led by the Yetzer Hara to come to be oiver halachas, like the infamous store in Monsey that sold treif meat as kosher for years.

This is one of those areas where the editors have to do a judgment call, and not everyone will agree with them. Ask yourself: if it were a matter of someone committing kashrus fraud, would you want it publicized? Why not abuse or tax fraud?

The prohibition of lashon hara does not apply to public knowledge. General conditions like tuition, yeshiva exclusivity and other more serious general subjects that are often discussed (often beaten to death) do not fall into the bounds of lashon hara . More care must be taken in reportage on individual people but, again, anything that is public knowledge is fair game. For example, saying Bernie Madof a thief is not lashon hara.

PJ – Thank you for defending me. I agree with you that Joseph seems to have some problems relating to other people. It would be nice if he got some professional help to figure out why he feels compelled to troll strangers in the coffee room. However, even when it seems that criticism is justified (more than amply justified in this case) it’s better for a religious Jew to keep the heat down and not get carried away. You’re not hurting Joseph by using extreme language – he just thinks it’s cool to be able to bait you. Don’t give him the satisfaction of losing your temper and using language that isn’t on the level we should keep.

It’s true that if you need to tell someone important information, than it is not loshon hora, like many posters have mentioned.

But the Torah isn’t this type of thing where it says: “Here’s the exception, so go do whatever you want with it”.
There halachos of what information is muttar to say and what isn’t. What details need to be mentioned and what don’t. Not every single detail and juicy word is relevant to get the point across. The wording of the article, and of the headline also need to reflect that too.

So yes there’s things we NEED to talk about. It’s not about that, it’s about HOW we talk about them.