TRUMP SEEKS TO CHILL A FREE PRESS
Donald Trump is following the authoritarian playbook trying to intimidate or shut down an independent media.
He has filed three defamation suits, none of which ordinarily have a chance of success. But he is effectively sending a chilling message.
Trump has long criticized the mainstream media, the "enemy" of the people, and is openly admiring of how Hungary's Viktor Obran has stifled press freedom.
He sued ABC and one of its anchors, George Stephanopoulos for defamation when in an interview the newsman said Trump was convicted of rape on the case brought by E. Jean Carroll. He actually was convicted of sexual assault, not rape. However the judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, said this was a technicality of New York law and, in common understanding Trump was convicted of rape.
Stephanopoulos was careless but not reckless, a basic test for defamation of a public figure. But ABC's parent company, Disney, with wide ranging interests affected by the federal government settled with a $16 million payment and apology. It was an indefensible capitulation that sends a chilling message.
He also is suing CBS for a "60 Minutes" October interview with Kamala Harris which he charged was edited to make her look better. This too is ridiculous as broadcast as well as print, editing most long interviews.
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Looking at the entire interview the President's charge that they changed her answers is patently false.
However CBS' parent, Paramount, is negotiating for a merger and Trump's right wing Federal Communications chair, Brendan Carr, warns approval may rest on how they resolve this case. I know and like the chair of Paramount, Shari Redstone -- we served on a board together -- but there are fears she'll put financial interests ahead of CBS' journalistic reputation. I hope Redstone will look at the threats during Watergate when the President of the news division, Richard Salant, ran a tough piece, over the objections of both the White House and the chairman CBS.
Probably the most absurd Trump suit is against the Des Moines Register and its pollster, Anne Selzer, for a pre-election poll that wrongly found Harris winning the state. The charge that it was intentional is preposterous. Good polls usually note that 95% of the time the result is within several points. That suggests that 5% of the time it's off as Selzer's was in early November.
There is no more respected or nonpartisan poll taker than Ann Selzer, with a remarkable record of accuracy. There is no more respected or non-partisan poll taker than Anne Selzer. She is being represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a civil liberties group with ties to conservatives. Selzer won't capitulate; I suspect Trump will.
Given the President's deep resentments expect him to get behind a move to overturn a 60 year law making it harder for politicians to win defamation actions. The case, New York Times v Sullivan, involved a 1960 ad in the paper by a civil rights group. It had a few inaccuracies and the public safety commissioner, L.B. Sullivan, successfully sued in state courts winning a $500,000 judgement. (That would be over $5 million in today's dollars.)
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the verdict and set a high bar for libeling a public official. The plaintiff had to prove "malice" or a "reckless" disregard of truth. An inaccuracy alone wasn't sufficient as the press needed "breathing space" to criticize public officials and encourage a robust, wide open debate.
This decision has served the public and the press well, but is now under attack from the right, including two Supreme Cout Justices and Trump.
"Overturning Sullivan would be a disaster," says Michael Gartner, a former top executive at the Wall Street Journal, NBC News , Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. "Stories would not be written or told because editors and news directors wouldn't be able to take the financial risks, bearing the high costs of lawsuits by bruised politicians and business leaders and pot-stirrers. Folks who simply don't like their media would sue them out of business for no reason other than animosity."
If you think that's a hypothetical, ask Shereen Siewert, the editor-publisher of the small digital, Wausau (Wisconsin) Pilot & Review. Several years ago they ran a story, based on three first hand sources, that at a town meeting on diversity a businessman called a 13 year old kid "a fag." He sued and after years of litigation the Pilot & Review won based on the New York Times decision. However, Siewert spent almost $200,000 in legal fees, about the annual budget for the three person newsroom; she still owes $20,000.
"If not for Sullivan we would have been dead in the water, would have had to close our doors."
Trump press haters should be careful what they wish for. Michael Tomasky, editor of the New Republic, contends the robust right wing media -- much more now than Fox News -- "sets the news agenda." If the defamation law is changed these outlets may face much more jeopardy than the New York Times or Washington Post.