Will ABC's settlement with Trump change how media cover him?
By: Imgrid Jacques
USA Today
..... ABC News settled a lawsuit last week [12/18/2024] with President-elect Donald Trump.
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In a surprising turn of events, the legacy news giant agreed to pay Trump $15 million (to go toward his presidential library), as well as to apologize for what anchor George Stephanopoulos said about the former president on his show.
..... Trump used ABC News in March [2024] after Stephanopoulos alleged multiple times that Trump had been found "liable for rape" during an interview with Representative Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, about her support for Trump.
..... The lawsuit alleged that the comments were made with malice and disregard for the truth - two requirements necessary to prove defamation because Trump is a public figure. Our First Amendment gives broad protections to what is said about such figures, as it should.
..... Stephanopoulos,' allegations were related to the civil case involving writer E. Jean Carroll, in which a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse - but not rape.
..... "It's an important distinction.
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In addition to falsely accusing Trump of rape, Stephanopoulos didn't look god in another important way in that interview with Mace.
..... Mace, a victim of rape, did not appreciate Stephanopoulos' questions and said she found them "disgusting." She also said she believed that Stephanopoulos tired to shame her as a rape victim because of whom she supported for president.
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Regardless, if ABC News had continued to fight the lawsuit, it's likely the company could have won.
..... The collegialities of what "rape" and "sexual Abuse" mean in New York law are complex, and the judge in the Carroll case had further muddied the waters in explaining the verdict.
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So given our tough protections of free speech, Stephanopoulos' comments - even though factually untrue - probably wouldn't have met the high bar for defamation of a public figure like Trump.
..... All of that makes it extremely intriguing that ABC News opted to settle with the president-elect for such a sizable sum.
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And apologize.
..... "ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Representative Nancy Mace on ABC's This Week on March 10, 2024." says a network statement, added to ABC's original article.
..... Trump has angered a lot of people the news business by calling the media "fake news: or the "enemy of the people."
..... Yet the news media frequently didn't treat Trump with fairness or impartiality during his first term.
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Regarding "Russian collusion," COVID-19;s originals and Hunter Biden's infamous laptop (to name a few examples), Trump's comments and actions were often the target of negative news reports - even though it turned out he was right about many of these things.
..... To have a journalist of Stephanopoulos' stature accuse Trump of being liable for rape on national television is reckless. I can't tell you how many people have written to me, insisting falsely that Trump is a "rapist," News organizations shouldn't contribute to the confusion.
..... The media, no matter how much they hate Trump, must prioritize accuracy and fairness when they report on the president.
..... I don't want to put more weight on this settlement between Trump and ABC than it deserves, but I'm hopeful it signals a change in how at lest son of the legacy news media will approach the president in his final term.
..... Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA Today. contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques.