December 16, 2024

Monday, December 16, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

Joe is always busy.

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The Fourth Estate was already failing.

The local small town newspaper is likely out of business. Sinclair, the media giant, is in Trump’s corner and providing distorted news to much of the nation daily.

Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, blocked the paper’s editorial for the Presidency, as did Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times, who has made clear he is monitoring the bias of proposed articles and columns in that once great city paper ongoing.

Bezos even sweetened his position with Trump by giving a $1,000,000 to Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum.

In shore, though we may not have noticed. There has been a battle going on.

Capitalism against Democracy in the Press. In the media.

As billionaire newspaper owners protect their pocketbooks.

Capitalism has won. So far.

ABC News’ $15 million capitulation to Trump is just one more domino in the collapse of the media.

I'm trying to put my finger on what's happening with this great capitulation to Trump -- ABC News, Chris Wray, the Democrats signing up to work with DOGE, Mark Benioff, etc. It's like you can feel the air going out of an entire social order.

— Michelle Goldberg (@michellegoldberg.bsky.social) 2024-12-14T22:52:39.644Z

ABC’s settlement with Trump feels like it could be an inflection point in the Orbanization of our politics. I hope it isn’t.

— Bill Kristol (@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social) 2024-12-14T21:51:58.554Z

ABC to Pay $15 Million to Settle a Defamation Suit Brought by Trump

The outcome of the lawsuit marks an unusual victory for President-elect Donald J. Trump in his ongoing legal campaign against national news organizations.

ABC News is set to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald J. Trump.

The agreement was a significant concession by a major news organization and a rare victory for a media-bashing politician whose previous litigation efforts against news outlets have often ended in defeat.

Under the terms of a settlement revealed on Saturday, ABC News will donate the $15 million to Mr. Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum. The network and its star anchor, George Stephanopoulos, also published a statement saying they “regret” remarks made about Mr. Trump during a televised interview in March.

ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, will pay Mr. Trump an additional $1 million for his legal fees.

The outcome is an unusual win for Mr. Trump, who has frequently sued news organizations for defamation and frequently lost, including in litigation against CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Several experts in media law said they believed that ABC News could have continued to fight, given the high threshold required by the courts for a public figure like Mr. Trump to prove defamation. A plaintiff must not only show that a news outlet published false information, but that it did so knowing that the information was false or with substantial doubts about its accuracy.

“Major news organizations have often been very leery of settlements in defamation suits brought by public officials and public figures, both because they fear the dangerous pattern of doing so and because they have the full weight of the First Amendment on their side,” said RonNell Andersen Jones, a professor of law at the University of Utah.

“What we might be seeing here is an attitudinal shift,” she added. “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.”

ABC News did not elaborate on Saturday about its precise reasons for settling. “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” a network spokeswoman said. A lawyer for Mr. Trump declined to comment on the agreement.

Tensions ran high between ABC News and Mr. Trump’s camp throughout the 2024 campaign.

Mr. Trump denounced ABC as “terrible” for its handling of his sole debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, faulting the moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, for fact-checking his answers and musing about stripping the network of its broadcasting license.

He also grumbled about the ties between Ms. Harris and Dana Walden, the senior Disney executive whose sprawling portfolio includes ABC News. Ms. Walden is a longtime friend of the vice president who held Harris fund-raisers at her home. ABC News said that Ms. Walden played no role in editorial decisions.

Debra O'Connell, the Disney executive who directly oversees ABC News, dined with Mr. Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in Palm Beach last Monday, according to two people briefed on their interaction. The dinner was part of a visit by several ABC News executives to Florida to meet with Mr. Trump’s transition team.

News networks typically arrange such meetings ahead of a new presidential administration to discuss subjects like booking and day-to-day coverage. Another person familiar with the meeting said its purpose was to discuss Mr. Trump’s White House transition, not the pending defamation case.

Under the settlement terms, ABC agreed to place an editor’s note at the bottom of an online article about the interview with Ms. Mace. The note reads: “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.”

In May, Mr. Stephanopoulos was asked about Mr. Trump’s pending lawsuit during an appearance on “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“How does it feel to be sued by a former president for defamation for just doing your job?” Mr. Colbert asked.

“Unfortunately, it now comes with the territory,” Mr. Stephanopoulos replied. “But I’m not going to be cowed out of doing my job because of the threat of Donald Trump.”

The audience cheered. (New York Times)

JOURNALISM 101 RULE: If someone says it’s raining, and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out of the fucking window and find out which is true. — Now more than ever.

— Andrea Junker (@strandjunker.com) 2024-12-15T21:06:47.556Z

“History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain.

— Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) 2024-12-14T03:06:33.448Z

Marc Elias. Democracy Docket.

On the morning that Donald Trump was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, he was honored at the New York Stock Exchange by ringing in the opening bell.

But the biggest news of the day, perhaps the week, took place during his brief remarks afterwards:

“The media is tamed down a little bit. They like us much better now, I think. If they don’t, then we’ll just have to take them on again, and we don’t want to do that.”

Trump is a pathological liar prone to boastful overstatement. But, in this instance, he is not wrong. If anything, he is being uncharacteristically modest.

The legacy media is not just tamed. Some of its most prominent participants act like obedient puppies. They are at heel and have dutifully learned to come when called. Several of the billionaire owners have even paid for the privilege — cutting seven figure checks to fête Trump at his inauguration. All the time wagging their tails.

Trump is also correct that if the media misbehaves in the future — barks too loudly or stands when it should be lying down — he will simply have to reinforce his dominance. He knows that at this point it won’t require much. A sharp pull on the leash or stern word will likely do the trick.

Most importantly, like any good owner, Trump doesn’t want to do that. He prefers they remain tame to having to correct their behavior in the future. Besides, he prefers to teach them new tricks — roll over, play dead and crawl come to mind — rather than reinforce the old ones.

Without an ounce of irony, or mention of Trump’s comments, the New York Times concluded that the most potent guardrail on Trump is his fear of bad press in the legacy media and falling stock prices. I suppose hardwired into every puppy is the need to be the favorite.

This is not to suggest that every journalist or legacy news outlet has capitulated. A few notable ones have not. The Atlantic and the New Yorker, continue to produce first rate coverage of the threat Trump poses to our country and our democracy. So do individual anchors like Nicolle Wallace and columnists like Jen Rubin at the Washington Post. And don’t forget that Harry Litman resigned from the L.A. Times rather than obey.

There are many others — too many to single out. My point is not that all legacy media has given in to Trump. But enough have, including too many owners, that it affects the overall effectiveness of the industry.

That is why we are seeing the rapid growth of independent media. Outlets like Democracy Docket have certain advantages that protect them from being “tamed” by the likes of Donald Trump.

By not having corporate ownership or other lines of business, independent media outlets are immune from the cross pressures created by a GOP willing to weaponize government. Democracy Docket has no government contracts. Its limited advertising revenue is from organizations that are, themselves, pro-democracy.

Another reminder of the media capitulation.

It is our turn.

Fight back.

Write to: Debra O'Connell, President and General Manager,
ABC News, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.

To submit a letter to the editor at Time magazine, please email letters@time.com

Remind Time that in 1938, they picked Hitler as Man of the Year.

One more thing.

Where was the press and timely fact checking about Massad Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law and Trump’s nominee for Sr. Adviser on the Middle East?

It’s a little surprising that it took this long after the election for someone new to power in the Republican Party to be exposed as an alleged fraud, like disgraced former Representative George Santos after the 2022 midterms. But on Thursday, the New York Times delivered with a story on President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East adviser Massad Boulos, who has been exaggerating his wealth and résumé.

If you’re not familiar, Boulos is a Lebanese American businessman who claims to be worth billions from his car-manufacturing company in Nigeria. His primary qualification for his current role on the president-elect’s team is that he is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany. But the Times found that Boulos is worth nowhere near what he claims. He is not the owner of a Nigerian manufacturing company. He is working for his own father-in-law at a manufacturing company that made a profit of less than $66,000 last year, according to its corporate filings. The same filings determined that the company is worth about $865,000 — making Boulos’s stake just $1.53. There are no missing zeros on that number.

Maybe Boulos’s investments are wrapped up in another firm? The Financial Times, for example, has cited a company called Boulos Enterprises as his family business. But when the Times checked in with Boulos Enterprises, a company officer said it was owned by an unrelated family with the same name.

Trump did not appear to be aware of any of this. In his announcement on Truth Social that Boulos would be his Middle East adviser, the president-elect described Boulos as a “highly respected leader in the business world with extensive experience on the international scene.” He also called him a “dealmaker” and touted his experience as a lawyer. But the school Boulos claimed was his alma matter, the University of Houson, has no record of his degree.

Boulos, who moved from Lebanon to Texas when he was a teenager in the 1980s, has spent little time in recent years in the region he is supposed to be an expert on. Until now, his business dealings have been murky. In October, a Times reporter asked him if he was a billionaire. He said he did not like to call himself that.

“It’s accurate to describe the company as a multibillion-dollar?” the reporter asked

“Yeah,” Boulos said. “It’s a big company. Long history.”

In an interview with the Times this week, Boulos said that the real wealth in his family comes from his wife’s father. (New York mag. Dec. 14).

The New York Times expose on this same subject appeared on December 12. Trump declared he was nominating Boulos on Dec. 1, and the media mimicked his words, calling Boulos a billionaire lawyer and dealmaker with mideastern roots.

Boulos is neither lawyer or dealmaker and his $1.53 stake in a trucking business makes clear he is no billionaire either.

Just more Trump nepotism and corruption. Just late fact-checking from the press.

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'Gum up the works': Trump backers furious over Christopher Wray's last action out the door.

Donald Trump's allies are furious at outgoing FBI director Christopher Wray's final actions overseeing the law enforcement agency.

The Trump-appointed Wray announced he would resign at the end of president Joe Biden's administration, but in the meantime he has reportedly begun promoting employees among the senior executive service – which has set off howls from the MAGA world.

"Mr. Wray has already begun promoting employees among the senior executive service, those who serve within the bureau’s leadership, according to sources within the bureau who described it as an effort to burrow establishment figures deeper within the FBI," said Kerry Picket, senior congressional reporter for the Washington Times. "According to the sources, a plan is being formulated to slow-walk the new FBI director’s entry at the agency for three to four months. Such a strategy by the agency is risky given the long, tense history the FBI and Mr. Trump have had since the 2016 presidential campaign."

Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official whose law license was suspended earlier this year over his efforts to cast doubt on Trump's 2020 election loss, complained that Wray's actions were unfair to the president-elect.

"This is a clear attempt to gum up the works of the FBI to frustrate Kash Patel’s takeover of the Bureau," Clark said. "Why aren’t we hearing condemnations of such conduct from the Left? It is conduct contrary to 'democracy.'"

"This is a government wide effort to put sand in the gears of the incoming Trump Administration," said X user Steve Ferguson.

"Do you think the FBI can be saved at this point?" added self-identified Trump supporter Mary Adams. "Always the same playbook, same as they did to Trump 2017 have people embedded everywhere. Fire them all, start with new people."

"Just fire them all or scatter them across the country," said self-described "GenX Constitutionalist" Angel Fawn.

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The most hopeful news of the week.

Remember Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, who tried to impose martial law law and end democracy in his own country.

First, the legislature tried to impeach him. They didn’t have the votes.

Then this happened.👇

Hope this is a good week for you, for South Korea, and for America.

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