Marjorie Taylor Greene is placing her chips on a Donald Trump legal move she hopes will aid her quest to strike down the media (what media, exactly, we can’t know) for its “widespread institutional libel and election interference.”
The U.S. representative and frequent Fox News guest wrote a post on Elon Musk’s X, which has definitely never been used to sway voters’ minds, celebrating Trump’s alleged lawsuits against outlets such as CBS and the New York Times. “This is extremely important and I am thankful that President Trump is leading the way by suing the media,” she said.
The Columbia Journalism Review reported that the president-elect’s lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik wrote letters to NYT and publisher Penguin Random House’s lawyers before his November 2024 victory. CJR claims to have reviewed these letters, which accused the journalists Peter Baker, Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Michael S. Schmidt of making “false and defamatory statements.”
Paltzik’s letters demanded $10 billion in damages and singled out specific articles. The Times is accused of being a “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic Party” that employs “industrial-scale libel against political opponents,” wrote CJR.
Then on Oct. 31, Trump’s camp sued CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview they said was edited favorably in Vice President Kamala Harris’ favor. “To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the lawsuit claims. CBS has said it will defend itself and that the accusation is “without merit” in a statement.
The Washington Post was targeted by a complaint addressed to the Federal Election Commission that alleged it made illegal contributions to Harris’ campaign via promoted stories. This accusation was denied. The Daily Beast, another outlet that earned Trump’s ire, was asked to retract several articles that claimed political consultant Chris LaCivita had garnered $22 million to aid Trump’s reelection.
For the wildest part of this story, we have to circle back to the letter addressed to the Times, which reads, “President Trump’s remarkable business, literary, media, and real estate achievements, and the fact that President Trump — and his life story — are the epitome of the American Dream and what it means to be an American patriot.” Humble pie is not on the menu at Mar-a-Lago.
“Based on a further review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2 million. The Beast regrets the error. The article has also been updated to make clear that payments were to LaCivita’s LLC not to LaCivita personally,” a retroactive editor’s note on The Daily Beast‘s articles said.
“If President Trump wins his lawsuits, that means many others like me will be able to sue them as well,” Greene wrote while twirling an imaginary mustache and peering out over Gotham City. It’s no surprise Greene, who often invites left-wing and neutral ire alike, would prefer to prevent a free press from operating.
While publications have stood up for their reporters and stood by their stories, lawsuits are not something most outlets can afford to fight often, even if they win them. As such, Trump’s litigiousness is a threat unto itself for publications writing about his adventures. Wait, hold on, my email inbox just pinged. I wonder who that could be!