💰 ABC's $15M Mea Culpa

ABC writes a $15M check and an apology to settle Trump defamation claim.

December 17, 2024

The Flag


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Right: Shootout in DOGE City, Peter Van Buren, The American Conservative

Right: Wray's Exit Clears Way for New, Better FBI, Miranda Devine, New York Post

Right: Are the Years of Madness Ending? Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness

Left: Behind the Curtain: Trump's Creators & Destroyers, Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen, Axios

Left: What Was the Biggest Factor in Harris' Defeat? Weber & Mystal, The Nation

TRUMP

ABC's $15M Mea Culpa

Today’s Top Story: ABC News agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by President-elect Donald Trump for $15 million, including $1 million in legal fees, following inaccurate comments by host George Stephanopoulos, avoiding further court proceedings and depositions.

Reporting from the Right: Stephanopoulos, ABC News ordered to apologize, pay $15 million in Trump defamation lawsuit settlement (Washington Examiner)

Reporting from the Left: ABC News agrees to contribute $15 million to Trump presidential foundation to settle defamation suit (CBS News)

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Partisan Irresponsibility

The Top Argument From The Right: ABC Pays the Price for George Stephanopoulos’s Partisan Irresponsibility, Jeffrey Blehar, National Review: “Trump just got ABC News to agree to being one of the single largest corporate donors to the eventual Official Museum of MAGA Studies. They’re building his library! …not only is what [George] Stephanopoulos confidently stated multiple times as legal fact — that Donald Trump was ‘found liable for rape’ — not true, the opposite was held to be the case by the jury. … As a simple matter of legal fact, however, Stephanopoulos got the nature of the verdict wildly and recklessly wrong, over and over again — aggressively so. The Manhattan jury that found Trump liable for an indeterminate sexual offense pointedly stipulated that Carroll didn’t prove rape. … The fickle gods of irony must have been displeased and delighted in equal measure to see this sort of legally actionable ignorance from a man who used to gleefully destroy the names and reputations of his boss’s paramours (willing or otherwise) and who somehow managed to spin that gig into his present job. … I enjoy seeing ABC get what’s coming to it for its arrogance and carelessness, and it couldn’t have involved a more deserving agent of disaster than the odious Stephanopoulos, who will otherwise pay no price professionally for the incident.”

Honorable Mention #2: What ABC's apology to Trump reveals about the media landscape, Jonathan Turley, Fox News

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Deeply Concerning

The Top Argument From The Left: 'Deeply Concerning': Ex-Prosecutor Calls ABC's Trump Settlement 'Far From Normal', Josephine Harvey, HuffPost: “Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance was among a chorus of legal experts and other critics who denounced ABC News’ decision… ‘This is so far from normal that it is difficult to process,’ Vance wrote in her ‘Civil Discourse’ newsletter. ‘Many people, myself included, viewed the lawsuit as questionable when it was filed and a settlement, especially one this early in the proceedings and of this magnitude, unlikely,’ she continued. … Trump’s case was based around a distinction in legal language. New York state law defines ‘rape’ as nonconsensual vaginal penetration by a penis. Trump was found to have assaulted Carroll with his fingers in a department store dressing room. He is appealing the verdict and denies all wrongdoing. The judge who oversaw the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, said in a filing last year that the definition of rape is narrow in New York, but the jury’s finding ‘implicitly determined that [Trump] forcibly penetrated [Carroll] digitally.’ … ‘In other words, [Trump] in fact did ‘rape’ Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contexts outside of the New York Penal Law,’ Kaplan wrote. … [Vance] questioned the timing of the settlement, which she said occurred “before the evidence is even on the table.”

Honorable Mention #1: Why ABC News settled with Donald Trump for $15 million Brian Stelter, CNN

Honorable Mention #2: Why the ABC News Settlement With Trump Is Complicated, Julianna McShane, Mother Jones

FLAG THIS

Media-Drive Divides on Trump

A 2020 Economist/YouGov poll reveals divided views on media coverage of Donald Trump and his handling of the press:

  • 44% of Americans believe the national press treated Trump unfairly, while 32% say coverage was fair.

  • By party: 77% of Republicans, 45% of Independents, and 16% of Democrats say Trump was treated unfairly.

  • Views differ according to news sources: 52% of Fox News viewers say Trump’s treatment was “very unfair,” compared to 56% of MSNBC and 50% of CNN viewers who believe it was fair.

  • Trump’s media handling was unpopular, with 54% disapproving and 38% approving.

Do you think the media treats Donald Trump unfairly?

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WATERCOOLER

First in Flight, Happiness Attack, Tooth Truth

On this day in 1903, Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville, and Wilbur Wright made the first successful flight in the history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight.

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