Colby Hall on Trump’s Lawsuit Against Media Outlets: ‘This Is Precisely What Authoritarian People Do’
Mediaite’s Colby Hall called President-elect Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer “precisely what authoritarians do” and predicted “enormous implications” for the media during Trump’s second term.
Trump is suing Selzer and the Register over what his legal team called “brazen election interference,” claiming they “engaged in an ‘unfair act or practice’ because the publication and release of the Harris Poll ‘caused substantial, unavoidable injury to consumers that was not outweighed by any consumer or competitive benefits which the practice produced.'”
The poll in question from Selzer and her firm showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa by three points, which was within the survey’s margin of error. Trump ultimately won Iowa by 13 points. Trump’s argument is that the poll forced the campaign to use resources originally meant for other states.
On Tuesday, Colby, founding editor of Mediaite and media contributor to NewsNation, joined NewsNation’s Marni Hughes to discuss the implications of Trump’s lawsuit, which dropped on the heels of the president-elect promising to target multiple media outlets.
“He won the election. Why do this?” Hughes asked.
Hall predicted Trump is “emboldened” after ABC News issued an apology to him and agreed to pay $15 million to the Trump presidential library. These concessions were part of a settlement over a defamation suit filed over an erroneous comment made by anchor George Stephanopoulos in March, when he claimed Trump was found liable of “rape.”
Trump was actually found liable of sexual abuse and defaming E. Jean Carroll by a New York jury in a civil trial last year. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the ’90s. Trump continues to deny this ever happened.
Hall argued on Tuesday that Trump is sending a clear message to media outlets with his lawsuits:
This is a huge story that has enormous implications for the next four years. You know, he it’s interesting that he’s not suing Ann Selzer of the Des Moines Register for defamation, but rather, you know, basically false advertising fraud. And I think he’s emboldened by the ABC News settlement. And I think he’s trying to sort of have a chilling effect on media. So, you know, who have been very critical of Trump in his first administration. He said recently that he tamed the media when he was down in The Wall Street Journal during the bell on Friday. I think he was right. And I think he’s trying to send a message that, you know, “You write negative stuff about me or treat me as I see unfairly. I’m going to come after you with lawsuits.” Now, he’s a billionaire. He’s got money to pay lawyers. This is not an official government lawsuit. This is just him and his campaign.
Trump’s status as a billionaire, Hall added, gives him a steep advantage over outlets like The Des Moines Register, which do not have anywhere near the same resources to defend themselves. Reporters and pollsters will likely second guess some of what they do out of fear of similar lawsuits, he said, which is “precisely what authoritarian people do.”
Hall argued:
The Des Moines Register and Ann Selzer, they don’t have the sort of resources that he does. And, you know, the net effect of this is that there’s going to be a lot of journalists and pollsters who will think twice about what they do. And I hate to use the term, but this is sort of precisely what authoritarian people do. They scare people away from writing anything critical. And that strikes to the heart of the First Amendment and what makes us a democracy and what makes America so great.
Hall argued ABC News likely would have defeated Trump in court, but they wanted to issue to “go away” as they are owned by Disney, a company with far more resources than a paper like the Register. Hall accused Trump of simply taking his same practices of litigious intimidation from real estate to politics.
“This is what Trump did as a real estate developer. If he didn’t like the work that a contractor did, he would just not pay them and then tied up in lawsuits,” he said. “And that’s why he stopped actually building buildings and started licensing his name because he ran out of contractors that would work with him due to that reputation.”
Watch above via NewsNation.
