Legal Info

Group Legal documents

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Article in The Washington Post by Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, 12/22/24

Headline:  “Trump signals plans to use all levers of power against the media”

Subhead:  “Press freedom advocates say they fear that the second Trump administration will ramp up pressure on journalists, in keeping with the president-elect’s combative rhetoric.”

“For many years, Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to sue the press but often didn’t follow through. When he did, he almost always lost.

“But Trump’s recent settlement with ABC News and a cascade of lawsuits and other complaints against media entities from him and his allies signal a ramped-up campaign from the president-elect. Together, the action has spurred concerns that his efforts could drastically undermine the institutions tasked with reporting on his coming administration, which Trump has promised will take revenge on those he perceives as having wronged him.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/22/trump-abc-news-settlement-george-stephanopoulos/

 

Stomping Out the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Victoria Bekiempis, 12/21/24

Headline:  “Trump and allies are waging campaign against media to stifle dissent – experts”

Subhead:  “Lawsuits against Iowa paper and settlement with ABC signal beginning of aggressive legal action to silence critics”

“Donald Trump and his allies have started to wage a campaign against media organisations in the US that are critical of the president-elect by launching lawsuits that media experts warn are designed to stifle dissent and potentially put them out of business.

“The tactic appears to be to aggressively pursue legal action against news organisations – which Trump has long dubbed “enemies of the people” – by asking for often hefty sums in damages. The cases are launched even if the odds of success sometimes appear long, because even an unsuccessful court action can be expensive for a cash-strapped media company and act as a deterrent.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/trump-media-assault-silence-criticism

Race and Media

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University of Houston

Article in The Guardian by Gloria Oladipo 12/21/24

Headline:  “Media’s empathetic coverage of Luigi Mangione reveals an obsession with humanizing white male suspects”

Subhead:  “Interest in the United Healthcare CEO shooting suspect’s background underscores research that the media covers white and Black perpetrators differently”

“Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who allegedly shot and killed the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has received an avalanche of media attention as people attempt to understand what may have driven him to commit such a violent crime.”

“. . .Multiple studies have shown that white male perpetrators of gun violence, especially ones in high profile incidents such as mass shootings, are often depicted more compassionately by news outlets. According to one study, publications routinely speculate about white perpetrators’ mental health as a possible explanation for their actions, painting a complex picture of their motivations, whereas suspects of color are reduced to racial stereotypes.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/luigi-mangione-racism-media

Media Court Battles

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Article in Reuters by Jack Queen and Helen Coster, 12/20/24

Headline:  “Trump’s lawyers bring broad approach to court battles with media”

“President-elect Donald Trump is adopting a wide-ranging legal strategy in suing media companies over what he describes as false or misleading coverage about him, filing cases under civil anti-fraud laws in addition to defamation lawsuits.

‘Some legal experts say the cases appear aimed at punishing outlets for critical coverage, and that the novel legal strategies are an effort to get past steep hurdles in defamation lawsuits, which can be difficult for public figures in the U.S. to win.

“Trump has said the lawsuits, three of which were filed in the past year, are necessary because media companies are “very dishonest” and need to be held accountable.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-lawyers-bring-broad-approach-court-battles-with-media-2024-12-20/

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Encyclopedia Brittanica

Article in Committee to Protect Journalism by Staff, 12/18/24

Headline: “The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Kyrgyzstan court’s decision upholding convictions against four journalists from anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live, two of whom were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.”

On Wednesday, the Bishkek City Court upheld an October 10 first instance court decision sentencing Makhabat Tajibek kyzy to six years in prison, Azamat Ishenbekov to five years in prison, and reporter Aike Beishekeyeva and former reporter Aktilek Kaparov to three years of probation. Prosecutors did not appeal the acquittals of seven other current and former Temirov Live staff.”

https://cpj.org/2024/12/kyrgyzstan-court-upholds-convictions-of-4-anti-corruption-journalists/

 

Frivolous Media Lawsuits

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Article in Vox by Ellen Ioanes, 12/18/24

Headline:  “Trump’s media lawsuits could do serious damage to America’s free press”

Subhead:  “Lawsuits against ABC and the Des Moines Register are meant to chill the media.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s contempt for the media is well-known, but two lawsuits filed against news organizations offer a worrying look at the next four years for outlets and reporters covering his administration.

“Disney, the parent company of ABC News, settled a suit with Trump for $15 million; Trump sued the company because anchor George Stephanopoulos mistakenly said Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, when he was actually found liable for sexual abuse. Trump also sued the Des Moines Register, an Iowa newspaper, this week because they published a poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris would win the state; he also sued the person who produced the poll. Trump is alleging this is election interference. These developments come amid ongoing lawsuits Trump has against CBS and publisher Simon & Schuster.

“These kinds of lawsuits aren’t new. They’re meant to be expensive and time-consuming for news companies, even if the outlets win the case.”

https://www.vox.com/donald-trump/391810/trump-media-lawsuits-abc-slapp-des-moines-register

Broadcasters – Beware!

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Article in Ars Technica y Jon Brokdin, 12/17/24

Headline:

Subhead:  “Brendan Carr backs Trump’s war against media, but revoking licenses won’t be easy.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wants the FCC to crack down on news broadcasters that he perceives as being unfair to Trump or Republicans in general.

“Carr’s stated goals would appear to mark a major shift in the FCC’s approach to broadcasters. Carr’s predecessors, including outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai, who served in the first Trump administration, both rejected Trump’s calls to punish news networks for alleged bias.

“Carr has instead embraced Trump’s view that broadcasters should be punished for supposed anti-conservative bias. Carr has threatened to revoke licenses by wielding the FCC’s authority to ensure that broadcast stations using public airwaves operate in the public interest, despite previous chairs saying the First Amendment prevents the FCC from revoking licenses based on content.”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/trumps-fcc-chair-can-hassle-the-living-daylights-out-of-news-broadcasters/

Will Our Free Press Burn?

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehmann. 12/17/24

Headline:  “Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Is Just Getting Started “

Subhead:  “The president-elect’s recent settlement with ABC News is an early volley in an all-out MAGA war against media independence.”

“. . .MSNBC’s erstwhile resistance mascots Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski started the ball rolling with a deferential post-election junket to Mar-a-Lago. Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong chimed in by throttling stories critical of MAGA prerogatives—and then announced an absurd AI feature that allowed readers to clock and correct alleged bias in the paper’s coverage, thereby downgrading the chronicle of current events into a choose-your-own adventure computer app for irate ideologues.”

“. . . Now, ABC News, a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation, has accelerated the quisling march of mainstream journalism into inert MAGA observance with a $15 million settlement of a defamation suit that Trump brought against the network”

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-abc-settlement/

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Article in Common Dreams by Robert Reich, 12/17/24

Headline: “ABC News Shows What It Looks Like When Corporate Media Bows to Trump”

Subhead: “We are beginning to see this all over the U.S. political-economic system — giant corporations and hugely wealthy people going out of their way to appease King Trump even in advance of his coronation.”

“ABC shouldn’t have agreed to settle the defamation case Trump brought against it — handing him $15 million for his presidential “library” (whatever monument that turns out to be) and another million for his legal fees, along with an apology.

It shouldn’t have, first, because the standard for defamation of a public figure requires that a plaintiff prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice” — that is, knew their statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

“But when on March 10, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, there’s zero evidence that Stephanopoulos knew it to be false or was acting with reckless disregard for the truth.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-attack-on-free-press

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Staff, 12/17/24

Headline:  “Questions ABC News Should Answer Following the $16 Million Trump Settlement”

Subhead:  “The decision to cave and apologize has unnerved American journalists. The network owes them an explanation.”

As someone who practiced press law for more than twenty years, and served as a senior executive of news organizations for just as long, I was shocked by the decision of ABC News last week to pay $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s libel case over George Stephanopoulos’s This Week broadcast in March. The shock came, and still lingers, because I—and every experienced press lawyer not involved in the case with whom I have discussed it—considered the case one in which ABC was likely to eventually prevail.

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/questions-abc-news-should-answer-16-million-trump- settlement.php

 

Lawyers Fight Any Bad News

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo & Brett Samuels, 12/17/24

Headline:  “ABC News settlement with Trump sends chill through media”

“ABC News’s decision to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by President-elect Trump is sending a chill through the media, with press organizations suggesting it is a major blow.

“It should not be seen as normal for powerful elected officials to wage legal campaigns against members of the press and their employers,” Caroline Hendrie, executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists, told The Hill on Monday.”

https://thehill.com/media/5042894-abc-news-settlement-with-trump-sends-chill-through-media/

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Article in The Hill by Zach Schonfeld, 12/17/24

Headline:  “Trump sues Des Moines Register, pollster”

“President-elect Trump sued The Des Moines Register and pollster J. Ann Selzer on Monday over a poll released just before Election Day indicating Vice President Harris had a sizable lead in Iowa.

The poll found Harris leading Trump in Iowa by 3 percentage points days before Trump won the Hawkeye State by 14 percentage points as voters sent him back to the White House.

Trump’s lawsuit, filed in Iowa state court in Polk County, accuses the outlet and pollster of violating Iowa’s consumer fraud laws by engaging in deception.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5043821-donald-trump-des-moines-register-ann-selzer-lawsuit/

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 12/16/24

Headline:  “ABC Settles With Trump in a Case It Could Have Won”

“ABC has agreed to pay $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library and $1 million toward Trump’s legal fees “to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll” (AP, 12/14/24).”

https://fair.org/home/abc-settles-with-trump-in-a-case-it-could-have-won/

 

 

Threats Against Media

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Article in Daily Beast by Grace Harrington, 12/16/24

Headline:  “Trump Steps Up Revenge Tour on Media With New Threats to Sue”

Subhead: “The president-elect unveiled plans for one lawsuit and boasted about more high-profile targets.”

“Donald Trump announced Monday he would sue political pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, which published a shock poll showing Trump losing Iowa by three points.

“I’m not doing this because I want to, I’m doing this because I feel I have an obligation to,” the president-elect said.

Trump’s announcement comes after he received a settlement from ABC News after he filed a defamation suit against the network. ABC News’ star anchor, George Stephanopoulos, said multiple times Trump was found “liable for rape,” when he was actually found liable for sexual abuse. As a result, ABC will contribute $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library. Trump’s win against ABC would embolden him to sue even more news organizations, critics said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-says-hell-sue-pollster-ann-selzer-for-wrong-prediction-in-the-des-moines-register-about-iowa/

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Article in The New Republic by Edith Olmsted, 12/16/24

Headline:  “Trump Unleashes Dangerous New Attack on Media After ABC Win”

Subhead:  “Donald Trump is feeling emboldened in his war on journalism.”

“Donald Trump promised Monday to launch a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register over a preelection poll that found Vice President Kamala Harris had “leapfrogged” the Republican candidate, in a state he went on to handily win.

During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, one journalist asked Trump about his ongoing defamation cases, asking, “Could you see moving that to other people with individual platforms, social media influencers, people that—”

“Or newspapers, yeah.” Trump interrupted.

https://newrepublic.com/post/189441/donald-trump-new-attack-media-lawsuit-abc