PBS Hot Takes - Misdirection and Lies

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PBS News' Take on the ABC News Lawsuit Is Really Something​

Our own Kurt Schlicter, who is a lawyer, wrote a column published earlier on Thursday morning, also mentioning that Supreme Court case. And while he acknowledges that such a case means defamation lawsuits mostly fail, he also is of a much different view, highlighting how discovery would likely have been rather embarrassing for ABC News, and also that the Trump legal team could have asked for and won even more money.

Nawaz and Enrich did discuss why the network settled, though there's still room for some more boneheaded points [Emphasis added]:

Amna Nawaz: My understanding is, the bar for defamation in particular is high for public figures. So what do we know about why ABC did decide to settle?
David Enrich: That is a very good $15 million question right now.
And it seems like — based on the reporting we have done and just talking to people, it seems like they were just very reluctant to have a long legal battle with the president of the United States, which is understandable, right?
But it also sets the precedent, potentially, that it really could embolden other political leaders, including Trump himself, to really double down on this tactic. So I think there are a lot of people in the First Amendment community and certainly in the media that were very surprised and quite troubled by this decision to essentially concede this to Trump so early on in what could have been a yearslong legal fight.

There's a simple answer for those who are "very surprised and quite troubled" by the outcome, which is to not defame.

But, as Nawaz brought up those other lawsuits, and asked about "the potential impact," Enrich responded with lamentations about how this could affect those who dare to "scrutinize or criticize the president."

"Well, I think it potentially sends a really chilling message to anyone who wants to not only scrutinize or criticize the president, but really anyone else who is influenced by Trump," he said, also claiming that "litigation is seen as a solution to shut people up."

Enrich did make one interesting and worthwhile point, which is that the Court may be reconsidering the New York Times v. Sullivan case from 1964.