Actions speak louder than words!
For years, Trump has railed against the spread of fake news and misrepresentation of his policies.
Now, the Trump administration is fighting back!
President Trump’s reelection campaign has announced that it is suing the New York Times for libel.
The campaign claims the the NYT knowingly published untrue information in an op-ed in 2019.
Politico is among the first to break the story:
President Trump supports freedom of the press!
It is a Constitutional right!
However, news organizations should also be held responsible for intentionally publishing false statements.
Reuters has more details on how the Trump campaign is aiming to fight back against intentional and willfull fake news:
In an escalation of the Republican president’s long-running battle with the news media, campaign officials said the lawsuit was being filed in New York State Supreme Court, the state’s trial-level court.
A statement from the campaign said the aim of the litigation was to “hold the news organization accountable for intentionally publishing false statements against President Trump’s campaign.”
The lawsuit relates to a March 27, 2019, opinion article written by Max Frankel, who served as executive editor of the Times from 1986 to 1994.
The campaign attached to a news release a draft copy of the suit accusing the newspaper of “extreme bias against (the campaign) and animosity” and cited what it called the Times’ “exuberance to improperly influence the presidential election in November 2020.” Trump is seeking re-election on Nov. 3.
The Times did not have an immediate comment.
The opinion piece was headlined, “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo” with a subhead adding, “The campaign and the Kremlin had an overarching deal: help beat Hillary Clinton for a new pro-Russian foreign policy.” Quid pro quo is a Latin term meaning a favor in exchange for a favor.
The lawsuit originated with the Trump re-election campaign, but Trump himself has contended the Times has at times been biased against him.
The draft copy of the suit was made available by the Trump campaign.
You can read the draft in the Tweet below:
This isn't the New York Times' first libel lawsuit.
Former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin also filed a defamation suit against the Times.
An op-ed piece incorrectly linked Palin to the mass shooting that wounded Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords.
The New York Times itself confirmed the libel suit by the Trump campaign:
President Trump’s re-election campaign sued The New York Times for libel on Wednesday, alleging that an Op-Ed article published by the newspaper falsely asserted a “quid pro quo” between Russian officials and Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Mr. Trump often threatens to sue media organizations but rarely follows through. The lawsuit, filed in New York State court in Manhattan, is the first time his political operation has taken legal action against an American news outlet since he took office.
The lawsuit concerns an essay published by the Opinion section of The Times in March 2019. The article, headlined “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo,” was written by Max Frankel, who served as executive editor of The Times from 1986 to 1994. (The Opinion section of The Times operates separately from its newsroom.)
In the essay, Mr. Frankel wrote about communications between Mr. Trump’s inner circle and Russian emissaries in the lead-up to the 2016 election. He concluded that, rather than any “detailed electoral collusion,” the Trump campaign and Russian officials instead “had an overarching deal”: “the quid of help in the campaign against Hillary Clinton for the quo of a new pro-Russian foreign policy.”
The lawsuit has been filed in the New York State Supreme Court.
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