Following in his lifelong trend of being obnoxiously litigious, Donald Trump is once again in the midst of a lawsuit.
This time he’s targeting CBS News, and his reason for going after the broadcaster is even worse than the motivation behind his 2024 ABC attack. He went after the latter over a single word — rape — being used to describe Trump’s sexual abuse of author E. Jean Carroll, and he’s now shifting targets to CBS over a similarly absurd issue. This time, he’s trying to dictate how journalists conduct interviews.
In 2024, ahead of the presidential election (that Trump won, by the way), CBS’ 60 Minutes conducted an interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris. It invited Trump for an interview as well, but he petulantly declined, leaving only Harris with a key opportunity to address voter questions. The interview was widely watched when it was released, and it seems Trump takes issue with that.
Now he’s going after CBS for an eye-watering $10 billion in damages, and all because he thinks the Harris interview was too partisan. Legal council representing the king of political polarization even classified the programming as “unlawful acts of election and voter interference,” that was intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” in the 2024 presidential election.
As a result of this alleged “misleading” reporting, Trump apparently thinks that he, alone, deserves financial compensation, and he’s going for the big bucks. Seemingly emboldened by his successful NBC settlement, Trump is increasingly targeting the First Amendment and the press, and it should scare us all — including Trump’s sycophantic worshippers over at Fox News.
The so-called “news” network hasn’t reported an accurate story in a decade, it seems, relying instead on frequent fear-mongering, false or heavily exaggerated reporting, and false flags targeting anyone and everyone on the political left. Its employees are so far removed from actual journalists it should be illegal to include “news” in its name, and yet here we are — with Fox News serving as the official propaganda arm of Trump’s government.
If Trump is successful in his exceedingly frivolous lawsuit, he’ll set a precedent that will undeniably impact Fox News, and not in a good way. If there’s any “news” network out there that’s more than guilty of manipulating interviews and misleading the public, its Fox. They wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped them across the face Moira Rose style, and they’ve made a killing off of manipulating the truth to their — and more importantly, Trump’s — aims.
So go right ahead, Trump. Sue CBS. You probably won’t win, given that the First Amendment — you know, from that Constitution you claim to love so much? — prohibits the government from “prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” The press has broad rights in this country, and most of us — including 60 Minutes — use that privilege to tell the truth. Or at least as close to the truth as we can manage, in the age of disinformation.
You know who doesn’t? Your playpen of a newsroom at Fox. Any coverage of Trump from Fox news is exceedingly manipulated to shield his worst traits while inflating his “best,” and that’s what its audience tunes in to see. If it was suddenly forced to pivot and tell the truth for once, it would tank the network in a week.
Sounds like a win to me.
Published: Feb 5, 2025 03:58 pm