The Chofetz Chaim says that there is a prohibition of
accepting lashon hara not only if what the person is saying might be a lie, but
even if what he is saying you know is true and the person saying it is giving a
negative twist to it, if the listener does not judge the situation favorably
when he is supposed to, not only does he transgress judging a fellow Jew
favorably which some poskin say is a mitzvah in the Torah, “bitzedek
tishpot amisecha” but he also received the prohibition of accepting lashon
hara just because he did not judge the situation favorably. One of the examples
I made up was what if you saw a hunter shoot a child in the forest and someone
else ran over to you who saw the same thing and said this hunter should be
caught and executed for this horrible act of viciously gunning down an innocent
child. This is obviously lashon hara, but you yourself saw it happen however
you have to judge the situation. What’s the child doing in a forest where
people hunt? Did the hunter aim for the child or was he aiming for a deer, etc.
etc.? You can’t come to conclusions so quickly and accept that the shooter is
malicious, you have to judge favorably until all the circumstances are clear.
The Chofetz Chaim brought 3 proofs that not judging favorably and accepting
lashon hara even if true is a sin:
A. Clearly the person who spoke the lashon hara sinned, therefore so to the one
who accepted it.
B. Yeravam ben Navat was rewarded kingship over the ten tribes of Israel for
not accepting true lashon hara from the prophet Amos of someone in Israel
stabbing him, and he accepted that even if it is true it is a prophecy from
G-d. So because he judged the prophecy positively though it was negative and
against him he was rewarded to become king even though he became a very evil
king.
C. King Shaul actually accepted the lashon hara from Doeg that Achimelech
helped David, which Achimelech admitted to but Shaul believed Doeg and killed many people for helping David
because King Shaul thought David was rebelling against his rulership and wanted
to dethrone him in his lifetime. Doeg was called someone who always speaks
lashon hara because of this and King Shaul was branded someone who accepts
lashon hara, even though it was true that Achimelech helped David but he didn’t
judge him favorably that it was intent to help someone make a rebellion against
his kingship.