‘We have to correct the press’: Trump’s plan to sue media critics into submission

Imprisonment of political critics? Donald Trump is open to that. But his prevailing tactic as he enters his second term is to sue the media into submission.

We’re not just talking about regular defamation lawsuits.

Now we’re talking about Trump suing a newspaper in Iowa over a bad poll. The poll organizer is being sued for consumer fraud. He’s suing 60 minutes For how to edit a video, a video he wasn’t even a part of. He’s asking for $10 billion. He is also suing the Pulitzer Prizes for rewarding newspapers that covered his alleged collusion with Russia.

This is after he filed a lawsuit against ABC News for claiming he was responsible for the rape. In fact, he was found responsible for Sexual assaultbut No rape.

A number of media analysts this week expressed shock at ABC’s parent company Settlement of rape claim case Without trial. The Disney Group paid $15 million.

One international expert in the field of freedom of expression called this A Worn playbook Used in authoritarian states: to sue, to sue, to continue to sue, regardless of whether the lawsuits have merit.

Eric Hines said winning the lawsuit is almost unimportant. The key is to keep potential critics from abusing you, as this could lead to devastating legal fees.

“This is how autocrats work,” said Haynes, a law professor at the University of London and head of the Center for Law, Democracy and Society. Book author On international lessons learned from freedom of expression.

“Not by telling you how they will persecute you, but by keeping you uncertain how or whether they will do it, or when they will do it. That is the secret of the tyrant. It is not clarity, it is ambiguity.”

The goal of quieting the press, he said, is to make it financially risky for people to say things they know are perfectly legal.

This practice has an abbreviation: SLAPP

The practice is so widespread that it has an acronym: SLAPP, which stands for “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.” It is used in all kinds of places, including democracies by wealthy claimants.

Cherian George is from a country famous for this practice: singapore. He said the defamation cases are part of the ruling party’s response to public debate.

In one famous case, a now-defunct magazine published an interview with an opposition leader who accused the Singapore government of abusing libel suits to hide corruption. How did the government respond? by Sue the magazine For defamation.

former journalist, George is now an academic Who studies freedom of expression and teaches at Hong Kong Baptist University.

He tells his students — most of whom are from mainland China — that the big difference with the United States is that because of how the First Amendment is interpreted by the courts, it is so difficult for politicians to win a libel case that they rarely try.

“I’m going to have to update that lecture,” George said.

He says that much will depend on the desire of media owners to defend freedom of the press, as is the case in Hollywood films The Washington PostA battle to publish a massive leak of documents about the Vietnam War.

He called the ABC case a failed test, not a moment Disney wants to commemorate in one of its films.

Profit-driven media owners are vulnerable to this political pressure, he said.

And just two days after Disney settled, there was another example of a wealthy media owner desperate to get on Trump’s good side.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also happens to own The Washington Post, Donated one million dollars To Trump’s inauguration fund and I traveled to Mar-a-Lago.

During the last election, he astonished his newspaper staff Cancellation An editorial endorsed Trump’s rival Kamala Harris.

Trump noted in a Mysterious post on social media Thursday that he had suddenly become popular with some unnamed people, in a message in all caps: “EVERYONE WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!”

Disney’s desire to be nice to Trump has drawn widespread criticism.

NBC host Chuck Todd He complained His ABC counterpart, George Stephanopoulos, was let go. The anti-Trump conservative news outlet, The Bulwark, has expressed concern that the media will begin to self-censor and stop addressing Trump’s hardest-hit critics.

Trump once admitted a drive to sue the media

But some reports say the case was more complex.

New York Post Suggested Disney decided to avoid an embarrassing discovery process, including evidence that Stephanopoulos was warned multiple times before appearing on air to avoid using the word “rape,” and then used the word over and over again.

The New York Times said Disney’s lawyer They were worried The case could reach the Supreme Court and end up becoming an excuse to weaken First Amendment case law.

Currently, it is extremely difficult for a public figure in the United States to successfully sue for defamation. The media is protected unless it publishes the word Knowingly malicious and Recklessly indifferent To the truth.

It’s the legacy of a court case in which The New York Times was sued over a 1960 ad Opposition to separation. The Alabama police commissioner said the report contained errors and was unfairly prejudicial, and he initially received the award $500,000but the Supreme Court invalidated this law in New York Times v. Sullivan, and it is the basis of current defamation law in the United States.

He was there Efforts to challenge it. and two Supreme Court justices, Especially Clarence Thomassupported the reconsideration of the 1964 resolution.

Meanwhile, most similar claims are thrown out of court.

Trump publicly explains, similar to Hynes earlier, that when it comes to defamation lawsuits, winning isn’t everything.

Trump admitted this after he filed a lawsuit against a journalist in 2006 who questioned his claim to be a billionaire. He sued, lost, then said it was worth it.

“I spent a few dollars on legal fees, and they spent a lot more.” Trump said.

“I did it to make his life miserable, and I’m happy about it.”

He now aims to make a few people’s lives difficult.

Summary of lawsuits filed by Trump

This includes suing one of the most respected pollsters in the United States under the law Iowa Consumer Fraud Law. the reason? Very poor poll by Ann Selzer, who has since retired after an excellent career.

A few days before the November elections The country was shocked With a poll showing Kamala Harris leading in Iowa, a result that signaled a potential landslide for her nationally, she has received significant media attention due to her track record.

Trump ultimately won Iowa by 13 points. In his court filing, he said the poll forced his campaign to unnecessarily spend resources in Iowa, and said an error of that magnitude was not statistically possible, but was in fact a malicious act.

He is seeking unspecified financial damages from her and is also suing the newspaper that published the poll, the Des Moines Register.

This is after Trump He sued CBS more 60 minutes Edited clips from an interview with Kamala Harris. The program featured a short clip of her grappling with an uncomfortable topic for her: the Middle East. She then resisted calls to make a full transcript of the interview public. He is seeking $10 billion.

but CBS denies Trump accusations of treason. She says she showed one clip of Harris’ answer on her show and shared it Different clip From the same answer with another CBS show.

And he too Suing for the Pulitzer Prize Council on awards for newspapers Cover them About his campaign’s alleged 2016 collusion with Russia — “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” as Trump calls it.

The 2016 case led to criminal charges being brought against some From Trump Senior campaign staff Pulitzer did Defend the awards They submitted to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In response to the poll lawsuit, Columbia University’s Knight Institute for Free Speech called Trump’s effort unsuccessful under the First Amendment and urged the court to quickly dismiss it, recognizing it for what it is: an attempt to intimidate and silence.

But Trump expressed his full support for these claims during a media conference this week.

In fact, he said he shouldn’t even be funding these cases — the US Department of Justice should; In other words, the Justice Department he is about to begin leading in a month.

“We have to correct the press,” Trump said.