Below is my column on Fox.com on the settlement of ABC News of the defamation case brought by President-elect Donald Trump. The settlement has enflamed many on the left as well as reportedly some at ABC News. However, ABC likely saw this as a no-win situation as it faced potentially embarrassing depositions.
Here is the column:
The late Richard J. Daley famously declared that “we as Democrats have no apologies to make to anyone.”
That doctrine seems still to be alive and well with many in the party when it comes to President-elect Donald Trump. After ABC News and its anchor George Stephanopoulos apologized to Trump this week to settle a defamation lawsuit, many Democrats were apoplectic.
Marc Elias, the controversial lawyer involved in the funding of the infamous Steele dossier by the Clinton campaign, denounced ABC News for bending a knee to Trump. He then trolled for contributions for his own organization as “unapologetically pro-democracy.”
Of course, ABC was not apologizing for advancing democracy but for alleged defamation. The network and the anchor expressed “regret” for stating that Trump was found “liable for rape” in a New York civil case. (The jury found that Trump had sexually abused and defamed E. J. Carroll). While Trump was never convicted of rape, Stephanopoulos repeated the claim ten times in his interview with Re. Nancy Mace, (R., S.C.).
What made the settlement interesting is that ABC was previously relying on the statements of the judge in the New York case, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who declared that the charge of rape was “substantially true…as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
Stephanopoulos played up his defiance of Trump with CBS’s late-night host Stephen Colbert. To the delight of Colbert, who regularly attacked Trump on his show and openly supported both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Stephanopoulos proclaimed that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job because of a threat.” He added, “Trump sued me because I used the word ‘rape,’ even though a judge said that’s in fact what did happen. We filed a motion to dismiss.”
So what happened?
Well, two things and both are related to the timing of the settlement.
First, the settlement came just before ABC and Stephanopoulos were to be called for depositions, as ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid.
That discovery was likely to prove more embarrassing for the network than it would Trump and could have revealed internal messages on the controversy.
The danger is on full display in another courtroom where CNN has been losing critical motions in a defamation case where punitive damages could result. Anchor Jake Tapper and CNN are being sued by Navy veteran Zachary Young after falsely suggesting that he and his organization were exploiting desperate Afghan refugees. Discovery uncovered malicious and unprofessional emails from producers promising to “nail” Young and making the segment his “funeral.” Disney was not eager to put its matinee personality, Stephanopoulos, through a similar meat grinder.
Second, the settlement occurred after an election in which Trump won the trifecta of the White House, Congress, and the popular vote.
Like most media, ABC was known for its unrelenting attacks on Trump and favorable coverage toward his opponents. The network’s iconic show, The View, has become an unhinged, partisan rave session against Trump, Republicans, and the majority of American voters. The show’s hosts now regularly read retractions or corrections to blunt allegedly defamatory screeds from its hosts. It has gotten to the point that the ABC General Counsel may soon need a chair at the table.
Disney is trying to adopt a more neutral stance after years of opposition for its stances on political issues and accusations of ultra-woke products. It is still struggling to appeal to over half of the country, including the most recent controversy involving the star of its soon-to-be-released remake of Snow White.
After the election, actress Rachel Zegler declared herself “speechless” over the results. That would have been a welcomed state for Disney, but the actress then found her voice in the most polarizing way, publicly praying “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” Zegler was clearly miscast in the film. It was the evil Queen that was supposed to harken “a blast of wind to fan my hate.”
On top of these controversies, ABC News was attacked by many over its handling of the Trump debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and it’s biased “fact-checking.”
With networks like MSNBC and CNN in a ratings and revenue free fall after the election, Disney clearly wants to start fresh with the new administration. Both are facing possible sales at potentially bargain basement prices.
The media echo chamber against Trump failed spectacularly in this election. With record levels of distrust of mainstream or legacy media, the public has increasingly shifted to new media.
In the meantime, Trump has been running the table on lawfare with the dismissal of the two federal cases and a victory on presidential immunity in the Supreme Court. The Georgia prosecution is falling apart over the conduct of the prosecutors rather than that of the defendant. The New York civil case faced a highly skeptical court over the grotesque award against Trump and his corporation.
Even Democratic politicians like Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) now feel comfortable admitting publicly that the New York hush money prosecution was “bullsh*t.”
For many politicians and pundits, the election seemed to flip the magnetic poles of the country. We now have ABC News giving millions to the Trump Presidential Library as democratic donors move toward a boycott of the Biden President Library.
With networks like MSNBC and CNN struggling for their very existence, ABC is intent on having a chair when the music stops. While the ABC settlement may not be an admission of guilt, it is a recognition of the reality after this historic election.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was repeatedly warned not to use word ‘rape’ by producer — but said it anyway: sources
https://nypost.com/2024/12/18/media/abc-parent-disney-didnt-think-it-would-beat-trump-in-court-report/
Ah, now it makes sense.
It seems to me that everything the Dems are up to is not to save ‘democracy’ but simply to save Democrat-cy; they have been on a long-term roll with their Identity Politics agenda for 60 or so years now, even as those ‘Identities’ not only made demands that effectively sought to ‘remake’ (or de-make) American society and culture but also continued to both intensify and splinter into the panoply of ‘Identities’ that are now seeking special preferences for themselves. And if some of the Dems finally came to realize that this entire political strategy is finally reaching the extreme – if not the ridiculous – with wokeness, their ‘solution’ has been to start their old game all over again by importing millions of illegals who, they no doubt hope and expect, will sooner or later have to be ‘accepted’ and will become a vast panoply of grateful-to-the-Dems voters. In support of which strategy we have seen assorted reasons (or excuses) up to and including the repellent whackery of bleating that there is really no such thing as ‘nation’ or ‘national borders’ anyway.
ABC wouldn’t have settled if it thought it had a chance of winning. Its big-time power lawyers told their client they could be on the hook for much more than $15M, and hence this settlement. What does that mean? It means they realized they did, in fact, defame Trump even given the heightened actual-malice standard applicable to public figures.
In short, they realized any reasonable jury would conclude Stephanopoulos lied and did so with knowledge that he was lying or reckless disregard of the truth.
Notably, in 2019 ABC contracted to pay Stephanopoulos $65M over five years to run his mouth. I don’t think they intended that he run his mouth in a way that would cost them $16M plus the cost of their own legal fees, probably another $1M (judging by Trump’s legal costs), so $17M total. Is there any reason they should not dock his pay the $17M his lying words cost them?
OldManFromKS,
Well said. There must of been something that could of been discovered in the depositions. They did the risk assessment and determined it was better to pay out. They know they have a credibility crisis with the American people as evidence by their failing audience numbers. As another Democrat strategist noted, this election was not only a loss for the Democrat party but MSM as well. American’s are switching off MSM for better, objective independent media.
Upstate – in my opinion there are multiple, interrelated reasons Americans are tuning out the MSM. Some of the reasons are that viewers now realize:
– MSM lied about Joe’s cognitive decline, and that came out at the debate
– MSM lied about Trump likely losing the election
– MSM lied about Joe’s ironclad promise not to pardon Hunter, and they went to bat against anyone who expressed skepticism
– MSM largely even now has trouble admitting Joe lied about never pardoning Hunter (although they know they have egg on their face)
– MSM switched on a dime from Kamala is dumb and awful to Kamala is the best and brightest candidate and full of “joy”
– MSM lied about covid in terms of vaccine dangers, lockdown and masking effectiveness, and the Wuhan-lab source of the virus
– MSM seems out of touch about the effects of inflation on the working class – understandably since the MSM talking heads are millionaires
You can probably add to the list. I say they’re all interrelated because they all stem from the MSM’s self-imposed role to act as DNC cheerleaders
OldManFromKS,
It sure did not help MSM when they jumped on the woke train and tried to tell us that is a “woman” and not a dude in a dress.
old man: do you do anything else with your life other than absorb and repeat the slop you get from MAGA media? Joe Biden does not have cognitive decline–how many speeches has he given since the debate? Just because MAGA media you rely on say he has cognitive decline does not make it true. MSM reported on polls–and the actual outcome of the election was within the margin of error–that does not make MSM liars–but Trump IS a liar–he has admitted he can’t immediately bring down the cost of groceries–that lie is why droves of people voted for him. Republicans have admitted that the grocery issue put Trump over the top–and it turns out to be just another big, fat lie. Joe promised not to pardon Hunter, but after Republicans ran their mouths and said they weren’t going to stop with the gun and tax issues–because Joe was their real target–HE CHANGED HIS MIND–and SAID that was the reason–Republicans were trying to get to him through Hunter. That does not make him a liar, either. MSN never said Kamala Harris is dumb–that was MAGA media. She is far smarter and more accomplished than Trump, but what she isn’t is a liar like he is. Maybe if she had been a liar like Trump and made all kinds of baseless promises the outcome might have been different. Democrats and Harris gave the American public too much credit for not seeing through Trump and his lies.
MSM did not “lie” about COVID–MSM reported what the CDC and WHO said about COVID. To this day, there is no definitive conclusion about the source of the virus–despite the lies you hear on MAGA media. The one who lied about COVID was Trump–over and over again–“it’s only one person coming from China”—“you’ll be back in church for Easter”;–“15 cases will soon be 0 cases”; “it will go away when the weather warms up”; “it’s no worse than the flu” (COVID is 10xs more deadly); “Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are cures”—all lies. People actually died because of his lies.
More of your lies. Spewing your non-stop MSM lies. Everyone with any degree of common sense, critical thinking, logic all saw and knew Biden was mentally incompetent. I knew back in 2020. If he was not, why did his own party commit a coup and kick him to the curb? And then in a very un-democracy fashion, install Harris as they would in a third world country? Just as they tried to keep people off the ballot without as so much as a trial? As we all know, it is going to be hard to fight and fix Bidenomics and Bidenflation. There is no easy fix. it will take time of the years and perhaps even a decade as I have stated here on the good professor’s blog many times. More people died under Biden’s admin than Trump. The world is a less safer place under Biden than Trump. That is a fact. There are EU countries who are putting out PSA about nuclear war as a result of Biden’s proxy war with Russia. That is a fact. The only reason Russia invaded the Ukraine is they saw an opportunity in such a weak WH admin that is the Biden admin. So did all our other enemies, to take advantage of the weak Biden admin. Not just Russia, but China, Iran and all their terrorists they support. Biden’s open border policy has become a multi-billion dollar industry for drugs and human trafficking for the drug cartels. Why else would Act Blue be funneling so much money into the DNC campaign? It benefits our enemies the most. Trump does not. That is why they are so hard bent on supporting the DNC. They count on dupes like you to just suck up the DNC, MSM propaganda and ignore all the damage the Biden admin has done. We have all noticed your “Trump bring down groceries prices” narrative has failed. All which is a failure of Bidenomics and Bidenflation. We do not need anyone be it MSM or independent media to tell us what we see at the gas pump or the grocery line. We all know life under the first three years of the Trump admin, up till the COVID lock downs, was good. Even for you. You were paying less at the pump and the grocery line. Of course in your fevered TDS, you will not admit that, as you have TDS. And it is a real mental illness. No. MAGA media did not invent it. You did. All by yourself. Just read your comments. Just read MSM. Just read Rachel Maddow. Just read those people on The View, who have to read a legal note. All afflicted with TDS.
Upstate: are you a Democrat? No. So, how do you know that Democrats kicked Biden off of the ticket, other than the MAGA media you rely on?
What do you know about inflation? Tell us, please, exactly what mistakes Biden made that caused inflation—if you can. Biden is the one who fixed the mess Trump left him to deal with–high unemployment, country closed down due to COVID and Trump’s lying about it and mishandling it, new daily records of deaths and infections, hospitals having to hire refrigerated trucks to hold corpses, long lines at food pantries, and no leisure travel. When Biden turned all of that around, supply chain did not keep up with demand—that is a big part of what has caused inflation.
And please stop lying about Biden’s alleged “weakness” emboldening Putin and others–the one who emboldened Putin was Trump–Putin knows a dupe when he sees one and he knows that Trump is emotionally weak, that he relies on flattery, that he’s not very bright, that he lies all of the time, that he’s ignorant of NATO and world history, and he thought that because Trump so insulted and alienated our EU and NATO allies that a united front couldn’t be put up to stop him. Biden fixed that, too–due to his relationships with other world leaders, their respect for him and diplomacy, so that NATO is stronger than ever and Finland and Sweden want to join. Putin has been stopped from just running over Ukraine.
I’m sorry–did I miss the story that we are at war with Iran and China–or are you just repeating the MAGA slop you like to believe? Karen S. says these things too, which is how I know it comes from MAGA media. If Trump cares so much about Fentanyl and drug cartels coming into our country, why did he kill the bipartisan border security bill that the border agents supported? He did it to create an issue to hook gullibles like you. If he really cared about the border issues, he would not have done this–he could have amended the law later on if he won, but his ego comes first.
The economy that was “good” under Trump was left over from Obama. Trump drove the national debt to a new record level due to his tax cuts for the wealthiest. And, it is a matter of fact thadt Obama deported more migrants than Trump ever did.
I’m not the one creating a “narrative” about Trump lying about immediately bringing down grocery prices–that is a promise he made on the campaign trail repeatedly, and which he said once again when he rang the bell at the NYSE. He has since admitted it won’t happen. That lie is how he got elected–even Republicans admit that.
I’m sorry, but I DO have a problem with someone like Trump, a draft dodger who calls our brave servicemen and women “suckers and losers” while standing in front of an American flag. I DO have a problem with someone who brags about assaulting women, who sexually assaulted a woman because he thought she attacked his manliness by suggesting that he try on lingerie, who steals classified documents and lies about returning them, who steals from a charitable foundation, who falsifies loan applications and business records and who lied about being able to “immediately” bring down the cost of groceries and housing and that people’s personal wealth will “soar”. I have a problem with someone who started an insurrection because his ego couldn’t handle the fact that he lost a free and fair election, running for the most-powerful position in the world simulating fellatio with a microphone, discussing a dead golfer’s genitals, insulting our Vice President, and who just can’t stop lying, lying, lying. I think anyone who finds this creep acceptable as the leader of the free world is the one with a mental disorder.
Sweden and Finland have been members of NATO for about a year now.
Your fictional diatribe is absolutely laughable, but quite sad at the same time. Your willful ignorance of reality is remarkable, and those efforts are extreme in nature – to what end, only you can know. Honestly, who do you think you’re impressing with this childish nonsense.
“Joe Biden does not have cognitive decline–how many speeches has he given since the debate?”
ROFL – about 1/100th the number Trump has.
” MSM reported on polls”
That were wrong.
“and the actual outcome of the election was within the margin of error–that does not make MSM liars”
Most of those “polls” had Harris up in nearly all swing states and willing the popular vote as little as 3 weeks before.
What happened in the last 3 weeks of the election that dropped Harris’s lead – 3-4pts.
Regardless – A few polls were good – Rassmussen, Atleas Intel.
Most of the poll agregators were within the margine of error.
Most of the left Polls were NOT withing the margin of error.
Can we stop the “gorocery hoax” ?
Gigi, everyone not a left wing ut KNEW Joe would Pardon Hunter.
I would note that Joe did not say – I will not Pardon hunter – unless republicans do to him what I have done to them.
He said absolutely unequivocally he would ot pardon hunter.
“Republicans were trying to get to him through Hunter – SV Wies is not a republican”?
“MSN never said Kamala Harris is dumb”
As politicians go she is dumber than most – does it matter who said it ?
“She is far smarter and more accomplished than Trump”
ROFL
“Maybe if she had been a liar …”
Democrats can not lie their way out of the disasterous Biden/Harris administration.
I think she ran an OK campaign.
She lost because the Biden/Harris administration was a failure.
You can not change reality with words.
“Democrats and Harris gave the American public too much credit for not seeing through Trump and his lies.”
Blaming Voters now.
“MSM did not “lie” about COVID”
Of course they did.
“MSM reported what the CDC and WHO said about COVID. ”
Which was a lie they repeated without checking.
“To this day, there is no definitive conclusion about the source of the virus”
The probability the virus came directly from nature is less than 1:13000000000
The odds it came from WIV are near unity.
“COVID is 10xs more deadly”
False – The FLU is more deadly than Covid – almost twice as deadly for
Covid is more deadly for older people.
“People actually died because of his lies.”
Nope.
BHut people did die from CDC’s and WHO’s.
The President of the United States is gripped with dementia and is declining. He does what he is told to do and he reads what he is told to read.
It is plain as day. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
He made a Faustian bargain in order to gain the Presidency and soon he will be gone. His most brilliant political move in half a century was choosing Kamala Harris to be Vice President. If something happened to him, she would become President; A move of self preservation.
When he was shoved aside, he threw her under the bus. Why else would Jill wear a red dress on Election Day?
@Gigi: that does not make MSM liars–but Trump IS a liar
Convince everyone the Mainstream Media Marxists DIDN’T lie to little Gigi for YEARS that the illegal “Trump-Russia Dossier” was factual: verified intelligence agency evidence!
Convince everyone that they didn’t lie to little starry-eyed Gigi that Trump said neo-Nazis were very fine people.
Convince everyone that Lyin’ Joe Biden DIDN’T lie to little Gigi for YEARS that he didn’t know anything about any of his son’s ChiCom and Russian customers.
Gigi, you’re a slandering, slimy slut. One who accuses everyone you hate of your own evils. If you had to serve a day in jail for every lie you post here, you’d already be serving a life sentence.
The weird thing is you do it here, where exactly nobody believes you, much less agrees with you.
Old Airborne Dog
Very well said –
Makes me wonder how much those high priced lawyers shuddered to think the jury award would have been had they not settled?
The Carroll case was ridiculous, and typical of the cases against Trump featuring politicized judges and Democrat juries. Carroll couldn’t even remember what year this supposed assault occurred. She posed on a magazine cover with the dress she said she wore – then it was discovered that the dress didn’t come out until after her first try at a date for her allegations. Her accusations paralleled a TV show plot which featured the same store. We are to believe she was raped in the middle of a busy department store without anyone noticing and without telling anyone at the store. In a TV interview at about the same time, she offered women advice on how to pick up men by dropping cash in front of them – a real class act. Only corrupt Dem judges and Trump hating juries would give this case the slightest credence.
oldman: No. You are wrong. ABC was dealing with a vindictive narcissist who has surrounded himself with syncophantic toadies with a hit list of media outlets and media personalities. He has vowed to shut them down. And, you have no idea what any lawyers told their clients. Every reasonable attorney I’ve heard comment on the case said that Trump didn’t have a ghost of a chance of winning because he was found to have penetrated E. Jean Carroll with his fingers, and under NY law that could be considered rape. Even if that failed, Trump could never prove actual malice. However, that leads to the next step–damages.
Explain just HOW Trump could be defamed given his rotten reputation for bragging about assaulting women, being adjudicated liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll, and all of the endless lying he does and has done.
I believe Turley is correct – ABC settled because they did not want the embarrassment that would have come with disocvery.
I doubt they would have lost.
That does not mean that the statements were not defamatory.
Regardless I find it offensive that Stephjanopolis – who was Clinton’s point man for slandering and maligning the women Clinton raped and assaulted.
That’s right, Turley, keep spoon-feeding the deplorables–try to sell them on the idea that Trump is in the right and ABC and Stephanolopoulos is in the wrong, knowing, as an attorney, that ABC and Stephanolopoulos would have won the case–but at what price when dealing with a mentally defective sociopathic narcissist hell-bent on revenge? Yes, Turley, ignore all of Trump’s threats to go after non-MAGA media, to pull their FCC licenses, and don’t mention Kash Patel’s enemies list, either, which includes non-MAGA media and media personalities. Turley even has the gall to suggest that he knows the thought process of ABC: “However, ABC likely saw this as a no-win situation as it faced potentially embarrassing depositions.” Every reliable legal commentator I’ve ever read said that Trump could never meet the high burden of proving both that Stephanolopous lied AND that he did it with actual malice. And, really, overall, does it matter whether Trump penetrated E. Jean Carroll with his fingers or his tiny little stump? It’s despicable conduct either way, something else Turley doesn’t have any comment for while he’s busy carrying out his paid punditry to attack non-MAGA media. Turley, I don’t know how you can look yourself in the mirror.
Thankfully for us, we have the good professor here to point out the various failings of MSM.
^^^Gigi just gets uglier and uglier in her comments, as more and more people call her out and back her into a corner, she just lashes out more.
poor little cookie. maybe we should just leave her alone and let her lick her wounds for awhile.
That’s right, Turley, keep spoon-feeding the deplorables
A Hunter Biden crack whore like you Gigi, wants to talk about ‘deplorables’?
We saw the best side of you with those spread gaping crotch shots with your heels behind your ears on Hunter Biden’s laptop. You’d need to skin out a Maine moose to make a merkin big enough to cover that Grand Canyon.
You sure knew how to strike a pose when there was a camera pointed at you Gigi.
Hunter Biden Laptop Online
https://bidenreport.com/#p=231
Given the explicit nature of the text and pictures of the Biden Laptop, this online version of the laptop contents is for an adult readership only.
ISBN: 978-1-7371866-3-2
@2022 by ICU, LLC
Jonathan: They say Democracy dies in the dark. This time it died in daylight. In a craven move ABC/Disney settled with DJT over his defamation lawsuit. ABC could have prevailed had they defended the lawsuit?. Yes, and this is why.
DJT would have had the burden of proving that George Stephanopolus acted with “actual malice” under the NY Times v. Sullivan proscription. He couldn’t do that because GS was simply repeating what Judge Kaplan has found in the two E Jean Carroll cases. And these are Judge Kaplan’s exact words:
“New York Penal Law definition of rape is limited to penile penetration. As the Court explained in its recent decision denying Mr. Trump’s motion for a new trial on damages and other relief in Carroll II, based on all of the evidence at trial and the jury’s verdict as a whole, the jury’s finding that Mr. Trump ‘sexually abused’ Ms. Carroll implicitly determined that he forcibly penetrated her digitally–in other words, that Mr. Trump in fact did ‘rape’ Ms. Carroll as the term commonly used and understood in contexts outside of the the New York Penal Law”.
Then, DJT would have to prove reputational harm and that he suffered damages. Also hard to prove because DJT’s supporters voted for him despite knowing about the two E Jean Carroll judgments. If there was no reputational harm or damages DJT would have lost the case on that basis alone.
What is interesting is that DJT decided to settle this case the day before he was scheduled to be deposed. DJT hates to give depositions. We know that because when he sued Michael Cohen for $500 million in that defamation lawsuit DJT dropped the case the day he scheduled to be deposed.
Most legal experts think ABC would have prevailed had they defended the lawsuit–probably by way of a summary motion to dismiss after DJT’s deposition. So why did they cave and pay $15 million? Pretty simple. The owners of the legacy mainstream media are running scared. They know this time around DJT wont’ just file defamation lawsuits, as he did during the first term, but use his DOJ/FBI to go after journalists and editors that put out stories critical of DJT’s policies. This why Jeff Bezos, the owner of the WP, nixed the paper’s already written Harris endorsement. And also why Mark Zuckerberg has given $1 million for the DJT inauguration. And this is why ABC caved after Disney executives made a trip to Mar-a-Lago to bow down to their new leader!
It’s pretty chilling when the mainstream media is willing to give up their independence to curry favor with the next president. And DJT added insult to injury by saying in a press conference: “”The media is taming down a little bit, I think. They’re liking us a lot better now, I think. If they don’t we’ll just have to take them on again…”
This all reminds me of when Putin took power in Russia. He used the levers of power to throttle the independent press–especially after the invasion of Ukraine when journalists were labelled “foreign agents” and imprisoned or killed. Would DJT attempt the same thing here? He loves Putin for clamping down on the press.
Will the country survive DJT’s autocratic rule? Judging from your column you think DJT’s attacks and threats against the press are just fine and dandy because we had a “historic election” and DJT won. A strange and bizarre stance to take for someone who also calls himself a journalist!
Stephen A. Smith’s response to perpetual Democrat lies after waking up to smell the coffee.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFLUe-ANJA&w=828&h=466%5D
That was a great video! I loved it when he said that he was sick of all the lies and the inconsistencies from the Democrats.
Report alleges U.S. Education Department unfairly targets Christian schools, career schools
“Nearly 70% of penalties imposed by the Office of Enforcement targeted Christian and career colleges that represent less than 10% of college students.”
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/report-ed-dept-unfairly-targets-christian-schools-career-schools
Los Angeles approves $30 hourly tourism wage, hotels say they’ll convert to homeless shelters
“Businesses warn the large spike in wages will lead to closures.”
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/la-passes-30-tourism-wage-hotels-say-theyll-convert-homeless-shelters
If these really are Defense Department drones doing radiation sniffing for possible dirty bombs, one could understand why they wouldn’t want to admit that & panic people. But at this point, the lack of disclosure is damaging public trust. Time to come clean.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) December 15, 2024
OT also: Looks very much like CBR recon. Someone lost something they are desperately trying to find and that something is believed to be more scary than the search for it, or they have reason to believe someone else lost something or planted something, they are desperately trying to find.
If accurate, it was reported that the only single day out of the last 30 days that drones were not reported over NJ, NY, etc., was Thanksgiving. Only Americans would likely be standing down on Thanksgiving. And then a day or two before the Army/Navy game in Landover, MD, they appear over Davidsonville, and Bowie, MD, due west of Landover.
Everyone loves a mystery.
ABC News knew that George crossed the line. If they were on solid ground there would have been no need to flinch.
Now George has to reach in his pockets and pay a million of this by himself and he had to apologize.
It is a long time coming. I knew this would happen when Fox had to pay off Dominion. People were dancing in the streets, but this case set a precedent.
Yay!
I love watching MSNBC and CNN struggling for their very existence. Van Jones said it well, the mainstream is now the fringe.
“[Trump] couldn’t do that [prove actual malice] . . .”
How do you know that? How do you know what might have come out during discovery?
Tea leaves? Crystal ball?
I appreciate all of this, but the truth doesn’t matter one iota to the dem machine. They will not relent, and we have got to build on our momentum against them with full force, no matter what, every tiny step of the way.
This is not ‘over’, we have just found a reprieve. It will take many more years to truly defeat them, and we can’t just sit back and gloat like children. Their bull**** is going to be off the charts over the next four years, count on it.
Good point! You are right.
From the network ratings it would appear that no one is watching any of these propaganda clowns. CNN and MSNBC cable are already on the chopping block. ABC, NBC, and CBS not doing all that much better. LA Times is in turmoil, NY Times not much better, WashPo is in the rinse cycle, Disney is suffering a slow and painful demise. Personally I haven’t watched any of the leftist cable news or network news, since 9/11, unless I accidentally hit the wrong button on the remote. Whereupon I instantly change it as if I’ve touched a hot plate.
As far as I can tell, the only people actually watching this trash is Fox News, and NewsMax. At least during the daylight hours, they both bring on token Democrat whiners, whereupon I switch channels. If I wanted to listen to leftist propaganda, I’d turn to the leftist propaganda channels. I suppose they are either attempting to say their unbiased or their attempting to sway a few leftists to listen to them. And in the process likely losing audience because as I said, who wants to listen to leftist propaganda?
Late Breaking Weekend News! Bernie Sanders Now Says You Shouldn’t Indict Your Political Opponents: Wants Presumptive Biden Pardons!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/3261167/bernie-sanders-biden-should-seriously-consider-preventive-pardons/
Sanders told NBC News’s Meet the Press that the outgoing president should at least consider taking such action. “Well, I think he might want to consider that very seriously. This is what authoritarianism is all about. It’s what dictatorship is all about. You do not arrest elected officials who disagree with you, who undertake an investigation.
Remember back when Sanders and the rest of the Democrats were saying you shouldn’t be authoritarian and go full dictator by impeaching a president because he asked for an investigation into Biden corruption and quid pro quo in Ukraine during the Obama/Biden administration?
Remember back when Sanders and the rest of the Democrats were aghast at Biden bringing back Jack Smith for a second session of indicting elected officials who disagreed with a Democrat president and were going to run against them and their reelection campaign, Remember them telling Biden that he shouldn’t do that?
Yeah, nobody else remembers Bernie Sanders or any other Democrat saying that.
Somebody should remind these terrified Democrat journalists and members of the Senate and House of their advice to Trump during his impeachments and trials: “If you didn’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear!”
George Stephanopoulos wasn’t the first journalist to be politically corrupted by the malignant influence of Donald Trump.
Jay Carney went from working with George Stephanopoulos at ABC News and Time Magazine to the Obama White House Press Secretary. From there he moved to being a CNN political commentator criticizing Trump.
Linda Douglass went from working with Stephanopoulos at ABC News to the Obama White House Communications Advisor and then to The Atlantic to criticize Trump.
Shailagh Murray went from the Washington Post to work as VP Biden’s Communications Director covering his serial lying. That earned her a promotion to Senior Advisor To President Obama, covering his lies.
Neil King, Shailaugh Murray’s husband, went from working at The Wall Street Journal to work for the DNC’s Fusion GPS, pushing the ‘Trump-Russia Dossier’ fraud in the 2016 election.
Jill Zuckman went from the Chicago Tribune to be Obama’s Assistant to the Secretary and Director at the Department of Transportation. She’s a favorite of the White House Correspondents Club…
Douglas Frantz went being an investigative journalist for the Washington Post and New York Times to the Obama State Department while they were watching the Biden’s cash in with Ukraine and Communist China. “Nothing to see here; don’t believe your lying eyes” may have been born with investigative journalist Franz…
Stephen Barr went from the Washington Post to the Obama Labor Department’s Office of Public Affairs.
Jonathan Allen had been at Politico before going to work for DNC Chairwoman and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, then back to Politico before going to radical left Vox. Now he appears at NBC News, Politico, and Vox again.
Ruth Marcus, who until recently headed the Washington Post Editorial Board during the last eight Trump years; her husband was named Obama’s Federal Trade Commission Chairman.
Those are just some of the self-licking Democrat ice cream cone that makes up the Soviet Democrat-Mainstream Media Propaganda Complex.
It’s a corrupt Democrat ‘journalist’ echo chamber forming a feedback loop of political/news incestuous worldview shaping for Democrat Useful Idiots desperate for confirmation of their Trump biases.
Old Airborne Dog
The Tale Of The Two Lying Democrat Georges
@George: ABC took a similar approach to what Turley’s employer decided: they opted to settle rather than go to trial, where embarrassing and damaging information could be revealed.
George is here as Gigi’s doubles partner, with the same predictable line: claiming that Fox is Professor Turley’s employer.
It just wouldn’t have quite the same effect to say The Hill or any of the other entities who publish Professor Turley’s work are his employers, would it George? And Georgetown, where Professor Turley lectures… they don’t pay him a dime! George and Gigi both claim if Fox weren’t employing Professor Turley, he’d starve to death!
Now that you’ve got your Confederate constitutional legal expert hat on George, would you like to give everyone your analysis of why Rachael Maddow was given a pass for repeatedly defaming a competing network by stating that competing network with higher ratings was funded by Putin. A defamation lawsuit thrown out by an Obama appointed judge who claimed there was no defamation because Maddow’s Democrat viewers like you and Gigi knew that she always lied, so no harm to that network’s reputation and no foul.
But when Fox’s lawyers months later attempted the same defense for WHAT THEIR GUESTS SAID, not the host who had them on, the court’s position was the complete opposite. More of Curious George’s Democrat Equal Justice For All.
You are a slimy little piece of slandering hypocritical lying shyte, George.
Old Airborne Dog
Old dog,
Fox News employs Turley as a legal commentator. Even Turley discloses he is a Fox News legal commentator when he writes rare columns about Fox News. He’s on Fox News often enough that he is employed by Fox News whenever they need legal commentary.
He writes and appears on Fox News primarily to bolster their narrative.
That’s why he never criticizes or badmouths Fox News or other right-leaning “news” organizations. He parrots the Fox News narrative for a paycheck. Just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. But lets not pretent that Turley isn’t shilling for Fox News.
The Cheap Fake Semantics And Whataboutism Moral Equivalency Of Professor Turley’s Resident Liar George
@George: “Fox News employs Turley as a legal commentator.”
You suck at feeble semantics as badly as you suck at being an effective liar. Your pathetic lack of reading comprehension does not serve as an excuse. You and Cringe Jean-Pierre Biden’s official White House liar are in a neck-to-neck race to the bottom. You insult us with your pathetic belief we find a single word you post to be credible.
So that’s the best you got for your daily litany of Daily Dumps that alternate between “BBBBUUUTTTT… MUH TRUMP!”, “BBBBUUUTTTT…. MUH TURLEY!” and “BBBBBUUUTTTTT…. MUH FOX!”?
You have nothing other than these non-existent moral equivalencies and Whataboutisms that are empty lying insinuations? Let’s use this as a Teachable Moment, George:
Your fellow lying George, Stephanopoulos, as an alleged ‘journalist’ defamed Jennifer Flowers previously in 1999 for speaking of Clinton raping her.
He defamed Paula Jones after she came forward about being raped by Bill Clinton while he was running the Clinton’s misogynist ‘War Room’ to cover Biden’s life of serial sexual felonies by destroying his female victims. Then he said she was just lying for a payoff – but Stormy Daniels a couple of years later who regularly changed her story was never accused by your fellow lying George of doing that.
Has professor Turley done anything like that on Fox to defame any Democrat, George?
As far as Professor Turley’s interest in free speech goes, your fellow lying George, Stephanopoulos, also successfully sought to keep Jones’ news conference about being raped by President Clinton off television. Stephanopoulos called NBC journalist Tim Russert, CNN chairman Tom Johnson, and other news organizations including his future employer ABC pleading with them to refuse to cover her news conference.
Stephanopoulos was successful in preventing Jones’ news conference from being covered. And you hope readers believe that Professor Turley is doing the exact same thing at Fox – suppressing coverage of anyone coming forward? Or doing that suppression anywhere else?
Your fellow lying George, Stephanopoulos, hid his three maxed out years of political donations to Hillary Clinton’s campaign to be president from his employers and viewers at ABC news while cospaying as an independent journalist just doing the news covering the Clinton and Trump campaigns.
You are going to try convincing us professor Turley has been donating to Trump’s election campaign the same way for the last three years and hiding it?
How much money did Stephanopoulos collect in his years as an alleged “journalist” being a Democrat propagandist, rather than a directly paid Democrat operative running the misogynist “Clinton War Room”.
Millions – you want to try claiming that Professor Turley also made the same percentage of what he’s worth by being an identical lying, deceitful party propagandist “journalist” at The Hill, Fox, the Washington Post, etc?
George, you’re still successfully staying ahead of honesty and credibility as they still run along behind trying to catch up with you.
First you should go sign an organ donor card in hopes of doing at least one thing positive in however long you continue to pollute the earth we have to share with you.
Second, you should go outside and apologize to all the trees working to hard to make the oxygen you steal for your continuing existence.
You are a cheap fake American, you communist pathological liar, racist, and sexual deviant.
Old Airborne Dog
Few people remember when it was considered to be a breach of a free press for a politician to become a member of the press because it was understood that he would bring his political biases with him. There was plenty of warning about the obvious outcome. Because George Stephanopoulos broke through the ceiling the trust of the press is at an all time low. There is some satisfaction to see the left wing press hoisted on its own petard. They forged and hammered out the iron by which they have been impaled. The irony should be recognized and never forgotten. The old folks would just say they’re just gettin their comeupins for being bad people. Sooner or later the slag floats to the top and is skimmed off but it’s been too long time come’n. In the continuation of their exposure may we find hope.
‘Because George Stephanopoulos broke through the ceiling the trust of the press is at an all time low.’
Stephanopoulos as the General at the head of Bill Clinton’s rape defense mechanism ‘Clinton War Room’ wasn’t even close to being the first Democrat slimeball to use the revolving door between the DNC and ” news journalism”.
There’s so many of them these days – particularly within the Obama/Biden administration that they should form their own union.
Cringe Jean-Pierre will probably be the next to follow her predecessor, Circle Back Psaki, through that revolving door.
Marc Elias, the controversial lawyer involved in the funding of the infamous Steele dossier by the Clinton campaign
Professor Turley, is that the worst you can come up with to describe Marc Elias? Or the best, perhaps?
Not even condemning him for referring to Trump as a rapist as you did Trump for “his ill-considered comments” a few days ago? He’s merely ‘controversial’? That’s it???
Marc Elias is a Washington DC Democrat lawyer who is an unindicted felon – only because his felonies were in Washington DC. He got the same Get Out Of Jail Free card that Clinton did who he acted as bagman for in the 2016 election.
– Elias working as the Clinton/Obama/DNC bagman illegally paid a Russian spy and former British spy to write and distribute their “Trump-Russia Dossier” election campaign defamation fraud.
– Elias hid those illegal payments through fraudulently declaring the money he paid to those spies as payments from Clinton/the DNC to him for ‘legal services’ he provided.
And there’s nothing in your Washington DC Bar Associations code of professional conduct prohibiting a member lawyer deliberately working to unconstitutionally change state election laws, is there Professor Turley?
It’s just ‘controversial’ for a fellow lawyer and member of your bar association to do that as Elias did in multiple states with a battalion of other Democrat lawyers in battleground states in 2020?
Professor Turley: when you’re speaking about your unindicted felonious fellow Democrat lawyers of the Washington DC Bar Association like Marc Elias, Merrick Garland, James Comey, Robert Mueller, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, etc, have you ever thought to look in a mirror and ask yourself why you can’t at least rise to the same levels of criticism as you use for President Trump and everyday citizen J6 rioters whose worst crime was trespassing on the lawn or ‘illegally parading”
You know: addressing them as though your felonious Democrat lawyer colleagues are also equals before the law?
Your reluctance to give your criminal Democrat lawyer friends the same treatment and criticism you give Trump and others marks you as part of the Democrat lawfare and abuse of civil rights problem, Professor Turley. The hypocrisy and providing cover for them is becoming part of many of your columns.
Your colleague Marc Elias is certainly in the news being ‘controversial’ these days, Professor Turley!
Marc Eliasgroup likely violated federal law paying Democratic candidates
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/2913244/marc-elias-tied-group-federal-law-democratic-candidates-watchdog/
Old Airborne Dog