- President-elect intensifies longstanding media hostility
With only two months left until Donald Trump returns to the White House, the president-elect and convicted felon has been waging lawfare by a flurry of lawsuits against media companies and publishers that have been critical of him.
The lawsuits come amid growing fears of what a second Trump term would mean for press freedom as Trump intensifies his longstanding hostility against the media – which he called “the enemy camp” in his victory speech last week.
On Thursday, Columbia Journalism Review revealed that just days before the presidential election, Trump’s lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik issued a letter to the New York Times and Penguin Random House that demanded $10bn in damages over articles critical of Trump.
The letter joins a series of frivolous lawsuits against other media companies that Trump has accused of politically targeting him.
The letter, which CJR reviewed, accused the articles’ authors Peter Baker, Michael S Schmidt, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner for “false and defamatory statements” about Trump, adding that the New York Times is a “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic party” that wages “industrial-scale libel against political opponents”.
According to CJR, the letter pointed to two specific stories by Buettner and Craig that relate to their latest book, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. The letter also pointed to a 20 October article by Baker titled “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment,” as well as a 22 October article by Schmidt titled “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator,” CJR reported.
Addressing the New York Times, the letter accused the outlet of harboring “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States”.
In response to the letter, the newspaper referred Paltzik to Penguin Random House over its accusations about Buettner and Craig’s book and said that it stood by their reporting, a person familiar with the matter told CJR.
CJR further reports that on 5 November, lawyers for Trump’s campaign co-chief Chris LaCivita issued a letter to the Daily Beast, demanding the outlet correct its articles that stated LaCivita raised $22m to help Trump’s re-election.
In response to the letter, the Daily Beast added an editor’s note to its articles, stating: “Based on a further review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2m. The Beast regrets the error. The article has also been updated to make clear that payments were to LaCivita’s LLC not to LaCivita personally.”
Yet, the note was insufficient to Trump’s campaign. A follow-up legal letter to the outlet said the note “does not remedy the overall messaging of the story – which depicts Mr LaCivita as deceptively pocketing campaign money for his own personal gain and that he was and is on the verge of being ‘fired’ because of it”.
“This entire narrative is completely false and a result of malicious and irresponsible reporting by the Daily Beast,” the letter added.
In addition to the New York Times, Penguin Random House and the Daily Beast, Trump and his campaign lawyers have sued CBS News, alleging in a lawsuit last month that its 7 October interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes was edited and was hence “election interference”.
The 19-page brief sought $10bn in damages and accused CBS of going “into overdrive to get Kamala elected”. It also accused the outlet of “partisan and unlawful acts of voter interference through malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion”.
In response, CBS called the lawsuit “completely without merit”, denied that the interview was edited and vowed to “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit.
Around the same time, Trump complained to the Federal Election Commission about the Washington Post, accusing it of making illegal in-kind contributions to Harris’s campaign. The Washington Post, which refused to endorse a political candidate this year at the direction of its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos – who later called Trump’s re-election an “extraordinary political comeback” – said the allegations were “improper” and “without merit”.
In response to Trump’s re-election victory and his repeated attacks against journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called Trump’s threats against the press a “clear and direct danger to media freedom”.
“The hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s first presidency – expected to continue in his forthcoming second term – poses great risks to media inside and outside the country,” CPJ added.
Echoing CPJ, Reporters Without Borders issued a similar statement following Trump’s win, saying: “Attacking the press is really an attack on American citizens’ right to know. Trump’s new administration can and must change its tune with the media and take concrete steps to protect journalists and develop a climate conducive to a robust and pluralistic news media.”
@The Guardian, UK
