The news that president-elect Donald Trump is getting $15 million from ABC News has had two effects: It’s terrified free speech enthusiasts who fear this may have a chilling effect on a free press and it’s emboldened the former and future president to go even further with his efforts to “straighten out the press.” Does this mean he’ll do the same for himself and stop with the falsehoods? One can hope but because we live in an existential science project, probably not.
In the settlement agreement with ABC, Trump will get $15 million to his presidential library and foundation and he’ll get reimbursed $1 million for his legal fees.
“Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections,” Trump said in a press conference. His next potential targets? Ann Selzer and the well-known news outlet the Des Moines Register. The newspaper published a poll by Selzer right before the 2024 election that then-presidential-candidate Vice President Kamala Harris had a 3-point lead in Iowa.
That turned out to be very wrong, as Trump easily won the state by 13 points. Is that worthy of a lawsuit? According to Trump, it is. He’s calling it “election interference” and “fraud.”
“We’ll probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow,” he said. Selzer, for her part, said she was “mystified” how people think would ” intentionally set [this] up to deliver this response, when I’ve never done that before… I’ve had plenty of opportunities to do it. It’s not my ethic.”
“I don’t understand it,” she said. “And the allegations I take very seriously. They’re saying that this was election interference, which is a crime.”
After he won the election, Trump said the poll “caused great distrust and uncertainty at a very critical time” and that Selzer knew “exactly what she was doing.”
The ABC News settlement stemmed from an interview between George Stephanopoulos and Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week, which aired on March 10. Trump said the network defamed him when Stephanopoulos said ten times on the show that Trump “raped” E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll was awarded $5 million for battery and defamation herself over the alleged incident, which happened in the mid-1990s in a department store. Carroll claimed she was defamed by Trump when he denied her claim about the incident.
Last year, a jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll, although it didn’t find that he raped her. Carroll got another $83.3 million following derogatory statements by Trump.
The distinction hanged on the word rape and what it means. The judge who oversaw the case didn’t throw it and said the differences between the word and what happened were far enough away that the case could move forward. Trump and Stephanopoulos were preparing for depositions when the settlement was announced.
The big worry here is that Trump’s litigious tendencies will cause news outlets to cover him differently out of fear, something that goes against the U.S. Constitution’s principles of a free press. The truth is Trump has always sued the news media when it says things he doesn’t like, and these cases mostly get thrown out before they get anywhere. Now that he’s the president-elect, time will tell if things continue in that fashion. As for whether he’ll apply the same energy toward his own words? Don’t hold your breath.
Published: Dec 16, 2024 02:54 pm