‘Intimidating News Outlets’: NYT’s David Enrich On How Trump Is Working to ‘Crack Down On Unfavorable Media Coverage’
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
New York Times business editor David Enrich took a deep dive over the weekend into what he described as President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts aimed at “intimidating news outlets and others who have criticized or questioned” him.
Enrich, who has a book coming out next year on the weaponization of libel laws, wrote that Trump’s “legal threats have arrived in various forms. One aired on CNN. Another came over the phone. More arrived in letters or emails.” He later added:
The small flurry of threatened defamation lawsuits is the latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage. Before and after the election, Mr. Trump and his allies have discussed subpoenaing news organizations, prosecuting journalists and their sources, revoking networks’ broadcast licenses and eliminating funding for public radio and television.
Actual or threatened libel lawsuits are another weapon at their disposal — and they are being deployed even before Mr. Trump moves back into the White House.
Enrich’s report came a day after ABC News and George Stephanopoulos settled a defamation lawsuit from Trump for a $15 million donation to his presidential library and an apology over Stephanopoulos repeatedly insisting that Trump had been found “liable for rape” instead of sexual abuse.
“The deal set off criticism of ABC News by those who perceived the network as needlessly bowing down to Mr. Trump. And it led some legal and media experts to wonder whether the outcome would embolden Mr. Trump and others to intensify their assault on the media, at a moment when many news organizations are struggling with declining public trust and deteriorating finances,” explained Enrich of the settlement.
Enrich warned on X that the “trend” of defamation suits over unfavorable coverage “seems likely to accelerate thanks to the ABC News settlement.” He continued in his report:
Over the past several weeks, lawyers for Mr. Trump and two of his most high-profile nominees — Pete Hegseth, the potential defense secretary, and Kash Patel, whom Mr. Trump has picked to run the F.B.I. — warned journalists and others of defamation lawsuits for what they had said or written.
Patel recently sued former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye over remarks she made about him on MSNBC. “In response, Ms. Troye’s lawyer, Mark S. Zaid, sent Mr. Binnall an image of a “Monty Python” character sticking out his tongue in a taunt,” Enrich noted as he concluded:
Over the decades, Mr. Trump himself has filed repeated lawsuits against media companies and others for what he considered unfair or unfavorable coverage. Aside from his settlement with ABC News, Mr. Trump has hardly ever prevailed. He currently has a pending libel suit against the board that hands out Pulitzer Prizes. In October, he sued CBS News, contending that it engaged in deceptive trade practices in a “60 Minutes” interview of Vice President Kamala Harris.
With Trump returning to power next month, Enrich argues that he is certain only to ramp up his long-held practice of using lawsuits and the courts to burden and punish those he views as opponents.
Read the full report here.
