Oooo…at a law firm we call that “slander”. Here’s a little lesson on slander boys and girls:
slan·der (slăn’dər) pronunciation
n.
- Law. Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person’s reputation.
- A false and malicious statement or report about someone.
A type of defamation. Slander is an untruthful oral (spoken) statement about a person that harms the person’s reputation or standing in the community. Because slander is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement. If the statement is made via broadcast media – for example, over the radio or on TV – it is considered libel, rather than slander, because the statement has the potential to reach a very wide audience.