ABC News Just Showed Trump Exactly How to Silence Journalists
In other words, ABC is paying Trump $16 million over what amounts to careful, defensible journalism.
As Margaret Sullivan points out in her latest American Crisis newsletter, this settlement breaks a cardinal rule of journalism: Don’t cave to legal intimidation. Drawing from her experience as editor of The Buffalo News, Sullivan explains that news organizations traditionally refuse to settle defamation cases because “settling would only encourage more people to sue.” Once you show that bullying works, you invite more bullying.
But that was a different era of journalism, wasn’t it? Before news organizations were just small divisions of massive entertainment conglomerates. Today, ABC News isn’t just ABC News—it’s Disney. And Disney has theme parks to protect, movies to distribute, and countless other business interests that could be affected by a vindictive president.