Fake News has had a bad couple of months.
Last month, ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement with Donald Trump after anchor George Stephanopoulos repeatedly lied about Trump being "liable for rape" in a civil case. Parent company Disney agreed to contribute the $15 million to Trump's presidential foundation or museum, and pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump's attorneys.
Now, CNN was just found liable for $5 million in damages for defaming a Navy veteran on Jake Tapper's show (as previewed by Jonathan Turley here).
On Friday, a jury in Florida concluded after a two-week trial that contractor Zachary Young was falsely accused of illegally participating in a "black market" for exfiltration services in Afghanistan after the disastrous withdrawal by the Biden administration. According to a segment on CNN, Young was called out by name as participating in the alleged scheme - which he said ruined his reputation and harmed his business. Young said he provided his services to major corporations seeking to render aid to employees stuck in Afghanistan, and that his prices were fair.
Young filed his lawsuit in 2022, which revealed CNN correspondent Alexander Marquardt disparaging Mr. Young to his CNN colleagues - while some coworkers internally characterized the report as "flawed."
CNN argued that the report, which aired during Jake Tapper's show, did not make any false assertions, however in 2022 the network removed the segment from its website and said it regretted using the term "black market," arguing that they meant to refer to unregulated activities, not unlawful ones.
There are currently zero mentions of CNN being held liable for defaming a US Navy veteran on the CNN website.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) January 17, 2025
Seems newsy. pic.twitter.com/PesyZxQ8oi
CBS Next?
And now for the trifecta - CBS News' owner Paramount Global executives have reportedly held internal discussions to settle a $10 billion lawsuit with Donald Trump ahead of its planned merger with Skydance Media, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It’s become clear to executives at both companies that Trump’s dissatisfaction with CBS News will make the review tougher than they anticipated, and that they’ll likely need to offer concessions to win approval, people familiar with the situation said.
Incoming Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr gave Paramount executives a warning to that effect at a reception late last year following the taping of the Kennedy Center honors in Washington, according to people familiar with the exchange, and he has echoed the message in public remarks.
Trump's lawsuit alleges that the network committed election interference by editing the hell out of a Kamala Harris interview to make her appear not retarded. Trump claimed CBS aired one version of the interview on "60 Minutes," and another version on "Face the Nation," each of which contained a different answer on the topic of Israel. CBS has defended itself - calling the "60 minutes" version simply 'more succinct.'
"What’s going on here is a lot of bluster to discipline the future operations of CBS," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public-interest attorney and senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. "My guess is that this is just to kind of soften them up and a warning to others."
Paramount and Skydance execs have mulled various options to shore up CBS News editorial operations while assuring the Trump camp that they would implement new processes around programming - possibly even releasing the transcript of the Harris interview, according to people familiar with the situation.
Skydance is run by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who has a good relationship with Trump. Under the terms of the deal, Skydance and its investors agreed to spend more than $8 billion to acquire control of Paramount from media heiress Shari Redstone and merge it with Skydance. A person close to Skydance said David Ellison would support measures to promote unbiased journalism.
Paramount finds itself in a similar predicament to the one CNN owner Time Warner faced in 2016 when it proposed merging with telecom giant AT&T. Trump regularly took aim at CNN for alleged bias, and his Justice Department sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds. -WSJ
Time to make a deal to make a deal?