What the Hell Were the Leaders at ABC News Thinking?

 This is a step backward for the free press.

The leaders of ABC News, in an apparent move to make nice with the soon-to-be American Chief Executive Duce, settled a defamation suit with Donald Trump over his allegations that George Stephanopoulos defamed him by calling his sexual assault of E Jean Carroll rape on the March 10, 2024, This Week Program. 

Days before Trump and Stephanopoulos were supposed to give depositions to the courts on the suit, ABC News issued an apology to Mr. Trump for their journalists labeling the jury found sexual assault rape and agreed to contribute $15 million toward Trump's future Presidential Library and one million for his legal bills. 

What the hell were the leaders at ABC News thinking?

First the facts, please. 

Donald Trump was found by a jury of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and ordered to pay five million dollars. 

Trump went on a rant against Carrol and another jury found him liable for defamation and ordered him to pay $83 million. 

Trump is appealing both judgments. 

The Judge in both cases, Lewis Kaplan, said that because New York State's criteria for what constitutes rape is narrower than in other states, the jury was forced to find that what Trump did was sexual abuse. 

However, the judge also said, 'the verdict did not mean that Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed … the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

So why did ABC News settle when the facts seemed to be on their side?

It would have been better to use that $16 million to fight Trump Administration efforts to try and take their license away than throw Stephanopoulos and their other journalists under the bus.

The nation can not fight the MAGA effort to convert this nation to autocracy if wimpy News Executives bend the knee at the first sign of trouble and compromise their First Amendment freedoms. 

People like those at ABC News and other outlets that are making nice with the incoming MAGA Administration need to show some strength like they did during Trump's first four years. 

This cover from Vanity Fair should be a model for how all news organizations should treat Mr. Trump.