LOLOL: Nice satire.

For anyone who thinks this is a good idea, please consider the following:

Dishonesty runs a wide gamut. That's a lot of jail space.

We jail dishonest politicians when they break the law, not when they lie.

We jail dishonest judges when they break the law, not when they lie.

We jail dishonest businessmen when they break the law, not when they lie.

Sometimes the lie is the crime, as when someone embezzles, or lies to cover up for another crime, such as influence-peddling or insider trading. When the crime is civil, or when the crime is petty rather than felonious, the penalty is more often financial, accompanied by removal from office in the case of public officials. This is less expensive than putting someone in jail.

As with many other problems, we already have laws and procedures to deal with reporter misconduct. The NRA would be a good source of high-dudgeon arguments (with which I agree, btw) concerning the stupidity of passing new laws to correct problems that can be remedied by the vigorous enforcement of existing laws.

There are laws against libel, and against copyright infringement (which also covers misrepresentation of an individual's work by another). Those would be civil suits, though, not criminal suits, so there would be no jail time. Only bankruptcy and professional disgrace.

There are laws which support firing an employee for failure to live up to a professional code of conduct written into a job description.

Should we license reporters so they'll be accountable? LOLOL -- I can hear the complaints now about all the government employees who have to be hired, trained, paid and given office space to administer the Office of Press Surveillence (OoPS).

Best regards--
Mary Anne