President-elect Donald Trump has had a complicated relationship with the news media during his decades in the public eye. As he goes into his second term in the White House, that relationship is more complicated than ever.
“I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of the Voice of America,” said Trump in a Truth Social post last Wednesday, referring to the former Republican gubernatorial candidate. “She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who I will announce soon, to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”
A day later, he was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Just days after that, ABC News agreed to contribute $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential foundation and museum as a settlement in a defamation lawsuit.
Trump brought the lawsuit against ABC, after anchor George Stephanopoulos said that Trump had been “found liable of rape,” in a March 10 interview regarding a jury finding Trump liable for sex assault against columnist E. Jean Carroll in a civil suit. In his suit, Trump alleged that Stephanopoulos acted “with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
Writing for The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner said ABC News “shockingly,” decided to a settle the suit and added that the move indicates traditional press freedom is at risk. He said: “We can expect more of this.” Kuttner also said that Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, has already given $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund.
A report from The Atlantic noted that Trump is now aiming at a pollster with a lawsuit. It described his recent suit against The Des Moines Register for publishing a poll that indicated he might lose the 2024 presidential election in Iowa as “absurd.”
“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 this week.
POLITICO noted that even lawsuits that seem outlandish or that lack merit can have a “chilling effect” on the press. David Schulz, who runs a media law clinic at Yale Law School, said the situation is “troubling,” according to the outlet.
“Many First Amendment advocates see the settlement as a capitulation by ABC that handed Trump both a lucrative victory and a legal roadmap,” said POLITICO. “They worry it will embolden him to escalate his use of private civil litigation against his media critics when he returns to power next month.”
This week, Trump told reporters that he plans to file more lawsuits against journalists and pundits. That was even before he filed the lawsuit against the Register and pollster Ann Selzer.