Why did ABC News settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump? (Poynter.com)

[ificandream]

In March, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos interviewed Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace and asked why she continued to support Donald Trump for president after, Stephanopoulos said, Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a 2023 civil case.

Stephanopoulos was referring to the case where a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. The jury did not find him guilty of rape. However, the judge in the case later clarified that because of New York’s narrow legal definition of “rape,” the jury did not mean that Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”

Nevertheless, Trump sued ABC News and Stephanopoulos for defamation over what Stephanopoulos said in the interview with Mace.

Then, over the weekend, ABC News announced it would settle the case with Trump. Under the terms of the settlement, ABC News will donate $15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum. In addition, the network will pay $1 million for Trump’s legal fees. Also, on the original story on its website, ABC News has added an editor’s note that says, “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”

Read more: https://mailchi.mp/poynter/why-did-abc-news-settle-a-lawsuit-with-trump?e=ed4c32b747

[marble falls]

1. Didn't he admit he broke laws and regret saying what he said? No where did he say it wasn't factual. The discussion ...

... was over an eighth grade English lesson in syntax.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Interesting comments in the same article:

/snip/

So why settle?

RonNell Andersen Jones, a professor of law at the University of Utah, made an interesting comment to the Times, saying, “What we might be seeing here is an attitudinal shift. Compared to the mainstream American press of a decade ago, today’s press is far less financially robust, far more politically threatened, and exponentially less confident that a given jury will value press freedom, rather than embrace a vilification of it.”

/snip/

Another thing to consider. Politico’s Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing wrote, “Trump’s suit against ABC and Stephanopoulos is just one in a series of cases the president-elect has filed against media organizations and his political opponents. During his bid for president, Trump used the stack of cases to boost his campaign’s visibility and advance a narrative that his perceived enemies unfairly target him. Now that he’s successfully clinched a return to the White House, any open cases could pose a problem as Trump could be called to provide sworn testimony and hand over related documents.”

But many see it as ABC News (and Disney) caving to Trump.

/snip

[LymphocyteLover]

3. Insane. This sets a terrible precedent!!!