When Donald Trump was re-elected last year, many outside of his MAGA cult hoped the press in this country would do their job and report fairly and accurately on his agenda. This became even more important when his authoritarian intent became more obvious - as he ruled by executive order, taking power away from Congress and ignoring the court system.
Unfortunately, some of the biggest media empires have chosen instead to give in to Trump's intimidation by lawsuit. These corporations decided to protect their bottom line instead of protecting their right to objectively report.
ABC News was the first, settling a lawsuit from Trump for $15 million in December - before he even took the presidential oath.
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was next. When he bought the newspaper, he said he would be a "hands-off" owner and let the paper do its job. In March, he changed his mind and caved to Trump - curtailing the kind of editorials the paper could print.
The latest is CBS News. It's parent company, Paramount, settled a lawsuit filed against them by Trump for $15 million (and the firing of Late Night host Steven Colbert). They decided their pending merger with another media company was more important than a free press.
This has been very distressing to those of us who understand the importance of a free press to the survival of democracy.
But all may not be lost. A newspaper has stepped up and shown it will not be intimidated by Trump. It is The Wall Street Journal (owned by right-winger Rupert Murdoch).
The paper, as is usual before breaking a news story, called Donald Trump and asked if he wanted to comment on a story they were ready to print - that he had sent Epstein a hand-drawn birthday card. Trump was furious and demanded the story not be printed. They printed it anyway.
Trump denied the story and sued the paper (and their owner) for slander for billions of dollars. But the paper stood by their story. They even printed another story about how AG Pam Bondi had told Trump in May that his name had appeared in the Epstein files a multitude of times.
Trump's lawsuit was an attempt to intimidate the newspaper and its owner. It didn't work. They evidently have the evidence to back up their stories. I think they probably would welcome the opportunity to depose Trump under oath. But I don't expect that to happen. Trump will back down because he doesn't want to have to testify about Epstein under oath.
Finally, someone is refusing to be intimidated by the bully in the White House. I'm a bit surprised it turned out to be a right-wing billionaire owning a right-wing paper that is standing up for a free press. Maybe they will give others the courage to do the same (although corporations are not known for their courage when profits are at stake).
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