Donald Trump is ramping up his historic war with the media. It’s been quite clear for years that he hates mainstream media for constantly covering him negatively. And bringing lawsuits is his greatest weapon for fighting back and keeping them under his control.
When it comes to anti-press lawsuits, the president is flexing his political muscles like never before.
The list of cases he’s filed or threatened to file goes on and on, not including all of the ways he has banned, limited access to, called for the firing of, and bedeviled reporters. He is punishing the media at a time when revenue and viewership are sinking. And when trust in all journalists is at an all-time low. The lawsuits erode that trust even more, making it harder to report solid facts.
Trump threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN last week over their reporting, challenging his claim that the bombs he ordered dropped on Iran obliterated its nuclear program. Escalating his war on the press, he sent legal letters demanding a retraction, saying the stories were false and defamatory. He also called for one CNN reporter who broke the story to be fired, prompting a strong defense from anchor Jake Tapper and the network..
The Times said, “No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.”
On Sunday morning on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures show, Maria Bartiromo asked Trump about the possible lawsuits. He said he might try to coerce reporters at CNN and the Times into telling him who their sources are.
“You go up and tell the reporter, ‘National security, who gave it?’ You have to do that,” he said. “And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.”
Many critics denounce Trump’s use of lawsuits and threats, saying he is intimidating newsrooms, scaring them into not covering anything that contradicts Trump’s worldview. They’re not wrong. He is attempting to frighten or bully information from them that is generally protected under free speech. In the past, reporters have gone to jail rather than identify sources.
In late 2024, Trump sued ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, who said on air that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. He said it ten different times. A jury did not find Trump liable for a charge of rape. He was liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll.
In a victory for Trump, ABC News caved and paid $15 million, with $1 million to cover Trump’s legal fees. It happened one day after a judge ordered Stephanopoulos and Trump to testify. Stephanopoulos – once Bill Clinton’s top aide – had to issue a statement expressing regret, and it went up on the website.
In this case, whether or not a lawsuit was the right way to go about getting a correction, Trump was right to fight Stephanopoulos’ egregious mistake, and ABC deserved to pay up.
In a stunning development today, another broadcast network caved to the president’s legal demands. CBS agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit involving the editing of a Kamala Harris interview by 60 Minutes. In the $20-billion suit, he charged that editing a Kamala Harris interview dishonestly made her look better by substituting a tighter answer to the question and amounted to election interference. The editing made the chronically tongue-tied candidate appear more coherent. CBS News has denied any wrongdoing.
CBS News has been in an uproar because parent company Paramount, controlled by Shari Redstone, imposed this settlement on the news division. She is seeking the administration’s approval to sell the company for a huge profit.
In my decades of editing interviews, it was common practice to edit for time. That’s still the case. You can’t interview someone for an hour and use all of the footage. But, it wasn’t fair game to change the context of the interview to make someone look better. And this is where I believe CBS News went wrong in a way that was shameful and unethical. But again, is a multi-billion-dollar suit the way to settle it? It seems excessive.
Also in late 2024, he sued the Des Moines Register, and its owner, the Gannett company, as well as its former pollster for releasing a poll right before the November election, calling it election interference. The poll said that Kamala Harris was predicted to win Iowa by three percentage points. Trump, who won the caucuses by 13.2%, said it violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
There had been no verdict in the case as it wound through the judicial system. However, Trump recently dropped the lawsuit, but refiled it in state court.
He’s said to have been involved in thousands of lawsuits over the course of his career. Lawsuits take time and money to litigate, and have an impact on media companies’ bottom line. Trump doesn’t need to worry about the drain to his bank account. And while Trump has every right to sue, the question is whether the claims violate the First Amendment.
In a rally in Pennsylvania days before the November election, it seemed like he embraced violence. But the campaign quickly walked it back.
“But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind that.”
“President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves…,” Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
No other president has wielded the lawsuit sword like Trump. Although there is one precedent. Theodore Roosevelt, while running for president, sued a small town newspaper when its editorial board wrote this: “Roosevelt lies and curses in a most disgusting way; he gets drunk, too, and not that infrequently, and all his intimates know it.” The paper recanted, and Roosevelt — attempting a comeback after serving as president — won the lawsuit but lost the election.
It’s a matter of ongoing debate whether Trump’s lawsuits against the media go too far. Detractors say it has a chilling effect on journalism. Supporters say he is exercising his legal right to hold the media accountable.
As a journalist, I am strongly in favor of protecting the right to report based on facts. But Trump seems to be challenging that in so many of his attacks or defamation suits. There are times, in the case of Stephanopoulos, when getting your facts wrong on the air deserves severe punishment.
I bet some stories never get written now for fear of Trump retaliation.
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