JONATHAN TURLEY: What ABC's apology to Trump reveals about the media landscape
For many politicians and pundits, the election seemed to flip the magnetic poles of the country
By Jonathan Turley Fox News
Published December 16, 2024 6:00am EST
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 Trump. After ABC News and its anchor George Stephanopoulos apologized to Trump last 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 10 times in his interview with Rep. 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.’"
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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-what-abcs-apology-trump-reveals-about-media-landscape
