ABC and Stephanopoulos apologize to Trump and pay massive amount in defamation fallout

The Oracle

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On the slopes of Mount Parnassus, Greece
Almost comically the TDS crowd is still arguing that it was rape. We've tried to explain the nuances of civil cases to no avail.

Clearly on the numerous threads where they declared it was rape, we weren't being pedantic in explaining that Carroll was awarded money for some perceived suffering.
Same members are telling us how massive Muslim immigration to the West isn't going to lead to any problems.

It's just all a big group hug, lol....
 

WyattEarp

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May 17, 2017
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Same members are telling us how massive Muslim immigration to the West isn't going to lead to any problems.
I do think some members have been bending a bit on this. Unfortunately, these members might still deny the electorate's inclinations on immigration.
 
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mandrill

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No, I don't think this buys ABC News anything with Donald Trump during his Presidency. He's not going to cut them any slack especially Geo.

I would tend to agree ABC didn't think it was worth fighting, but that might also be indicative of the gray area this Carroll legal case has occupied.
My first reaction to the case was to say "Yeah, it's inaccurate because it was sexual assault, not rape." But then, you get into the "How much worse is rape than sexual assault and how do you quantify the difference in terms of a damages award??"...

If I was a judge, I would have awarded "nominal damages" and stated that the slander was an exaggeration, but the actual proven fact was not that much better. So maybe in the $100k range???

I certainly wouldn't have tossed out $15M - which makes me think it's an attempt to kiss ass, rather than a real legal estimation of what damages might be at trial.

Leaving aside the fact that Trump is unlikely to have taken the stand and opened himself to cross examination on the issue of whether he fingered Carroll or stuck his dick in her. He certainly avoided the first edition of the trial.
 

kherg007

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My first reaction to the case was to say "Yeah, it's inaccurate because it was sexual assault, not rape." But then, you get into the "How much worse is rape than sexual assault and how do you quantify the difference in terms of a damages award??"...

If I was a judge, I would have awarded "nominal damages" and stated that the slander was an exaggeration, but the actual proven fact was not that much better. So maybe in the $100k range???

I certainly wouldn't have tossed out $15M - which makes me think it's an attempt to kiss ass, rather than a real legal estimation of what damages might be at trial.

Leaving aside the fact that Trump is unlikely to have taken the stand and opened himself to cross examination on the issue of whether he fingered Carroll or stuck his dick in her. He certainly avoided the first edition of the trial.
The dough goes to his library too. Plus his attny fees.
 

Knuckle Ball

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ABC should have stood their ground and fought this in court: they would have won.

This is just further evidence of the chilling effect that Trump’s looming presidency is already having on free speech- major networks are afraid that Trump is coming after them using all means at his disposal and they are folding up like cheap suits.

This is straight out of the Viktor Orbon playbook.
 

mandrill

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I do think some members have been bending a bit on this. Unfortunately, these members might still deny the electorate's inclinations on immigration.
The right has mobilized immigration as the major voting issue in both the US and most European elections.

And for that very reason, the right refuses to do anything to stem the tide of immigration. The GOP notoriously chose not to support the Dem bill to shut down the border. Why??.... The border is too juicy as an election issue.

The British Tories ran on immigration and paired it with Brexit in 2016 and then did nothing to stop the "boat people" except talk endlessly about how they were going to stop them one day because - after all - the Tories were the party of white British identity. During the same period of time, the Brit Tories actually increased legal immigration to a massive new numerical high - all the time while decrying high immigration and pretending that they were going to put a stop to it.

What do we glean from this?.....

Immigration and racism is the #1 voting issue for right of centre parties now.

Right of centre parties cannot afford to cut back on immigration because then the problem is "solved" and is no longer a powerful voting issue.

So rightie parties INCREASE the number of immigrants to create a sense of crisis - and for other economic reasons, of course - while rhetoricizing about how high immigration needs to be curtailed and how they intend to do it.
 
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JuanGoodman

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ABC should have stood their ground and fought this in court: they would have won.

This is just further evidence of the chilling effect that Trump’s looming presidency is already having on free speech- major networks are afraid that Trump is coming after them using all means at his disposal and they are folding up like cheap suits.

This is straight out of the Viktor Orbon playbook.
make the cheque payable to Donald J.Trump, thank you

CBC will be next
 
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mandrill

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Almost comically the TDS crowd is still arguing that it was rape. We've tried to explain the nuances of civil cases to no avail.

Clearly on the numerous threads where they declared it was rape, we weren't being pedantic in explaining that Carroll was awarded money for some perceived suffering. Criminality was not decided and the standard for finding in favor of the accuser much lower.
Been through this ad nauseam.
 

mandrill

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Disney owns ABC News and has a market capitalization of over $200 billion. They could have easily fought this if they thought it was worth it in terms of reputation and principle.
Let's play it out then.

ABC takes it to trial. Does Trump show up and testify that he didn't grope and finger Carroll?.... He's already had the chance and slunk away like a coward. He would likely run and hide once again.

ABC calls Carroll. She repeats her evidence. The judge says "That's finger fucking, not dickie fucking" in judge language.

ABC says "So he's just a finger fucker who forced his fingers into a woman, not his dick. How much is the difference worth, judge?"

The judge says ??????? $100k? $500k? I don't think it can go higher than that, because a finger-rapist is little better than a dick-rapist in the food chain of slander court.

So ABC wins a pyrrhic victory and Trump is shamed as a cowardly groper - again and for the 2nd time.

So why doesn't ABC fight it out?.....

Because it's not worth their while? Because they want to salvage some ins with the White House?

You tell me.
 

mandrill

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Disney owns ABC News and has a market capitalization of over $200 billion. They could have easily fought this if they thought it was worth it in terms of reputation and principle.
Let's play it out a little more. You're senior litigation counsel for ABC news. You say: "Well, Trump is the president. That makes him the most reputable guy in the USA and multiplies any damages award 10 or 20 times. What if Carroll died before the trial and we couldn't prove justification? Or if she showed up and totally fudwumbled her testimony and Trump's lead attorney picked her apart?.... ABC would be fucked to the tune of maybe over $100M!!!"

So he / she suggests that they pay a small % of the potential damages claim to get Trump to fuck off. Like about $15M.

Then they could play it as a buy-off to a nuisance asshole. As opposed to losing the trial if Carroll no-showed or booted her evidence. Because in the latter case, they just flat out lose and get pissed out of the courtroom like turds.
 

Knuckle Ball

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I’m just curious as to where all of the so-called “Free Speech” advocates on the Right have scurried away to since Trump is back in power?

Can you imagine the histrionics on the Right if Biden came after Far Right media for all of the crazy shit they post about him and his family? Smh
 
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Knuckle Ball

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Trump lawsuits, threats a clear and wrongheaded effort to bully the press
New York Daily News Editorial BoardDecember 17, 2024 at 8:00 PM EST
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

It’s wrong for the incoming president to start suing newspapers and it’s a transparent effort to bully the press, but there Donald Trump stood Monday, proclaiming that “we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt. Almost as corrupt as our elections.”

Neither the press nor elections are crooked, but Trump is now suing the Des Moines Register and its former top pollster Ann Selzer in a clear effort to intimidate journalists.

Trump claims that the Register, Selzer and her polling firm violated an Iowa consumer protection law with the publication of a pre-election poll that showed Kamala Harris ahead in the state Trump ultimately carried comfortably.

The legal arguments here and in other such Trump litigation efforts against the media are mostly pretext. They’re window dressing for the real message, which is that the future president real hates criticism, dissent or even inconvenient factual information and will use the legal system to target those who engage in it.

Trump is already suing CBS News for a “60 Minutes” broadcast that he thought was too favorable to Harris, as well as taking author Bob Woodward to court, and he’s talking about bringing a case against the Pulitzer Prize Board because he didn’t like them giving a prize to coverage of the Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 election.

Trump also went after ABC News because of anchorman George Stephanopoulos’ description of the former president having been found “liable for rape” by the jury in the E. Jean Carroll case. The network settled the other day and paid Trump $15 million and another $1 million for his legal fees.

Observer and legal experts say it was rare for a case to be settled at this stage of the proceedings, especially in favor towards a public figure plaintiff.

Just like any private citizen, Trump can avail himself of the court system as a plaintiff. But he must not bring in the federal bureaucracy that he will soon control. We don’t have to speculate about his appetite for using that authority to punish his enemies because he’s been very candid himself, having made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, jail or otherwise use federal powers against them.

The idea that Selzer and the Register violated some sort of consumer laws by engaging in the long-standing tradition of public polling is not just absurd, it’s outrageous and self-evidently asinine. Polls have been wrong before, and they’ll be wrong again.

The entire practice of polling has only gotten more difficult as people have moved away from landlines and answering their cell phones, plus there are a thousand reasons why a poll might have been off base. Unless there is some bulletproof evidence — and none has been presented — the notion that the long-respected pollster manipulated or manufactured this poll to specifically hurt Trump is ludicrous.

Trump built his career in New York in large part on manipulating the legal system, stiffing workers, under- or over-valuing his properties when convenient and generally trying to bully everyone around him. Even just prior to his 2016 election, he and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits, a good chunk of them as a plaintiff, including at least 14 involving media figures and defamation claims.

He has often mused openly about loosening up the nation’s historically strong First Amendment protections and making claims of libel easier to pursue, no doubt at least partly inspired by the foreign strongmen he so admires, who have helped consolidate their power by taking aim at the institutions that could hold them accountable.

 
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WyattEarp

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Speaking of jackasses not knowing when to shut up...$15m settlement vs $83m. 😜
I was actually thinking that if Trump gets the $83 million knocked down (kind of excessive dontchya think?) he could possibly turn a profit on paper.
 
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WyattEarp

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In the meanwhile he will go down in History of being the only sitting President who is a Felon!!
Interestingly and actually very relevant, Trump is only the second President to return to the Presidency after losing the office.
I can't think of a more pertinent jury of one's peers than the entire country.
 
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