New York
Act Daily News
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News organizations are nonetheless struggling over methods to cowl Donald Trump.
Years after he crashed onto the political scene and ascended to the Oval Office, largely by exploiting the press’ insatiable urge for food for spectacle, the nation’s high news organizations proceed to offer oxygen to the disgraced president’s trivial stunts.
A model of this text first appeared within the “Reliable Sources” publication. Sign up for the day by day digest chronicling the evolving media panorama right here.
The newest instance comes by means of Bob Woodward. Trump this week filed a $50 million lawsuit in opposition to the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, alleging that when Woodward revealed audio of their interviews in his audiobook it breached his rights by constituting copyright violations.
The motion is only one of numerous threats and lawsuits filed by the previous president in opposition to journalists and news organizations over time that generated large headlines and had been exploited by Trump for political achieve, just for them to be later unceremoniously tossed out by the courts.
Most authorized consultants Act Daily News contacted on Tuesday shortly dismissed Trump’s lawsuit in opposition to Woodward as meritless. Here’s a sampling of what they mentioned:
► Charles Tobin, a First Amendment legal professional, mentioned it “has no legal merit whatsoever” and is “just another example of Trump trying to control the news.”
► Ted Boutrous, one other First Amendment legal professional, mentioned the Constitution protected Woodward’s proper to publish the audio, including, “This is yet another frivolous lawsuit by Donald Trump intended to punish and chill freedom of the press that once again displays his complete misunderstanding of journalism.”
► Floyd Abrams, the famend First Amendment legal professional of Pentagon Papers fame, mentioned he “can’t think of a less successful litigant of public note than Donald Trump” and mentioned he didn’t see “any clear basis for Trump maintaining that Woodward agreed that the on-the-record interview could not be published or otherwise disseminated by Woodward as he did.”
► Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School, described “most of the claims” within the lawsuit as “obviously garbage,” explaining they’re “preempted by federal copyright law.” (Tushnet, nonetheless, did say that the underlying copyright problem is fascinating, given there’s little case legislation on the topic.)
It solely took Act Daily News just a few hours to gather this knowledgeable commentary. But as a substitute of main retailers pausing to assemble this much-needed context after Trump filed his go well with in opposition to Woodward, most newsrooms merely revealed tales echoing his grievance. In impact, news retailers just like the Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, NBC News, POLITICO, Axios, Act Daily News, and others ran tales that performed instantly into Trump’s fingers.
And whereas some tales, like Act Daily News’s, famous the previous president has a historical past of submitting lawsuits that in the end get tossed out of court docket, the tales nonetheless gave Trump the headlines he wished and amplified his lawsuit’s allegations, all with out providing readers a lot wanted context from impartial authorized consultants.
Yes, these retailers additionally revealed a remark issued by Woodward and his writer, Simon and Schuster, defending their actions (although some rushed to publish so frantically that they didn’t even look ahead to the response.) But weighting their argument equally in opposition to Trump’s doesn’t appear to be enough when masking a determine who is thought for mendacity, maligning the press, pulling political stunts, and — particularly — submitting frivolous lawsuits in opposition to perceived enemies.
In truth, the style through which most newsrooms lined this story is especially disappointing provided that simply earlier this month, a federal decide admonished Trump and his authorized staff for submitting what was deemed a frivolous lawsuit. In that case, Trump and his lawyer had been ordered to pay a staggering sum of almost $1 million.
Judge Donald Middlebrooks pointed to Trump’s “pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes” as he took be aware of a number of different failed lawsuits Trump has introduced in recent times. “Mr. Trump is using the courts as a stage set for political theater and grievance. This behavior interferes with the ability of the judiciary to perform its constitutional duty,” he wrote.
It can also be dismaying given the bigger dialogue among the many press over time about not succumbing hook, line, and sinker for Trump’s stunts. If the press continues to be failing to do its due diligence on a easy story like this, that doesn’t bode effectively because the nation hurtles towards what’s already gearing as much as be an unpleasant 2024 presidential race.
Source: www.cnn.com