Dem
47
GOP
53
High on the list of what authoritarians do is cow the media. Donald Trump has been working on that for a while, and now he has scored a major victory. He sued ABC News because in an interview, George Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable for rape by a New York court. Technically, what he did to E. Jean Carroll is considered sexual assault, not rape, under New York law, although under the DoJ definition it is most definitely rape. The judge did note that what the jury found he did falls under the common definition of rape and under the laws of other states but in New York it is called sexual assault, not rape. New York's definition is an older one. Most other states have updated their definition, but not New York.
ABC News decided it was better to pay Trump than fight this in court, so they paid him $15 million to make the case go away. Stepanopoulos also has to say he "regrets" the mistake. This is a warning to the media that Trump will go after them if they anger him. In this case, it is merely a warning for interviewers to be very careful about terminology. Trump can be called someone who was found liable for sexual assault, but he can't be called a rapist. Will this one case cow the media? Probably not, but it will make interviewers, talking heads, and writers more careful about their exact words. As to the Jan. 6 case, one cannot say Trump led an insurrection (because he hasn't been convicted so far), but one can say that he was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to defraud the United States. To us, the correct wording sounds worse than "insurrectionist." (V)