President-elect Donald Trump followed through Monday on his promise to punish certain journalists. He sued the Des Moines Register and its now retired pollster, Ann Selzer, over a poll that showed Trump losing the election in Iowa.
At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said, “We have to straighten out the press.”
While on the campaign trail, Trump made numerous threats against the press including throwing some reporters in jail and taking away the broadcast licenses of TV networks when he dislikes their stories about him.
Trump’s selection of Kash Patel for FBI director appears to reinforce those threats. Patel has also pledged to wage a campaign against the press.
Over the weekend, ABC News settled a lawsuit in which Trump accused George Stephanopoulos of defamation during a March 10 interview. Stephanopoulos had said a number of times that Trump had been found liable for rape in the E. Jean Carroll case.
The civil jury actually found Trump not liable for rape, although it did find him liable for sexual abuse. The judge handling that case, Lewis Kaplan, said what the jury concluded did amounted to “digital rape.”
ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to the Trump Presidential Library to settle the case.
The decision has drawn criticism from those concerned if litigation against news networks for unfavorable coverage will become the new normal.
Guest:
Seth Stern is the Director of Advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation.
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*This interview will be recorded on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.
