Donald Trump has initiated a whopping $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, alleging libel and defamation that inflicted grave harm to his reputation. The lawsuit is instituted against The New York Times, four of its correspondents, and the renowned publishing house Penguin Random House. This lawsuit was lodged in a U.S. district court in Florida on Monday.
The lawsuit brought forth by Trump includes several articles from The New York Times, a pre-2024 election editorial in particular, wherein it was cynically stated that he was unqualified for the presidency. A notable citation also includes a book titled ‘Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,’ published last year by Penguin, authored by two investigative reporters from Times.
The lawsuit filing reads, ‘Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles, being fully aware that these publications were dense with abhorrent distortions and fabrications about President Trump.’ An unmerited defence strategy by The New York Times maintains that the lawsuit possesses an inadequate legitimate legal basis and is merely a deterrent to independent journalism.
A representative from The New York Times swiftly retorted, ‘This lawsuit is devoid of any merit. It’s lacking any true legal claims and appears to be an attempt to suppress and deter autonomous reporting. We remain adamant about pursuing the facts without fear or favor and asserting journalists’ First Amendment rights to make inquires for the American populace.’ However, given the odd bias in their reporting, the assurances ring hollow.
Attempt to reach Penguin for a comment yielded no immediate response. President Trump chose to declare the lawsuit via Truth Social on Monday night, stating, ‘Today, I have the Great Honor of initiating a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times, a newspaper that has slipped to become one of the worst and extremely degenerate, virtually morphing into a ‘mouthpiece’ for the Radical Left Democrat Party.’
His statement continues, ‘I view this as the single largest illegal Campaign contribution in history. They placed their endorsement of Kamala Harris, firmly and unabashedly at the center of The New York Times front page, a practice heretofore UNHEARD OF!’ This oddly overt support for Harris overemphasizes the biased stand that the Times has been holding.
Trump further alleges that The Times has been propagating lies about himself, his family, business, the America First Movement, and MAGA, declaring considerable damage to the nation as a whole. He boosts about his ‘successful’ lawsuits against media establishments, suggesting that they knowingly spread false narratives about him through document and visual alterations.
He concludes his statement with a sharp retort, ‘The New York Times has now exploited their freedom to the brink, sticking to lies, smears, and defamation. It ends, NOW! The suit is being lodged in the Great State of Florida. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’. It seems that this wouldn’t be the last time the president takes action against media bias.
This isn’t the first instance where the former President sued a significant news organization. In several previous cases, the news organizations were left with no choice but to settle the lawsuits, dismissing them as ‘meritless’. This wave of settlements has depicted the president’s determination to protect his reputation.
Trump has also ensnared in legal battles other media establishments including Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, and Wall Street Journal reporters. This was resultant of an article which presented the narrative of the president penning a birthday letter with questionable content to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The president was quick to decry this as ‘false, malicious’ and ‘defamatory’, which further emphasized the media’s reliance on unverified facts. Trump then took legal action, pointing to a consistent pattern of media bias and malintent.
It should be noted that this is not the first occasion when Trump and The Times found themselves at cross purposes in the legal battlefield. There have been numerous threats to litigate the news organization due to their controversial reports about bombing raids in Iran by the U.S. military.
This was in stark opposition to the administration’s initial assessment claiming that Iran’s nuclear capabilities were ‘totally obliterated’. Such discrepancies in reporting bring to light a journalistic disregard for objective facts.
As we watch the unfolding of this legal spectacle, it’s crucial to consider the looming question: how many such skewed narrative battles are yet to be resolved? And should the media have unfettered discretion to frame the narrative as per their subjectivity, or should they be held accountable for their distorted perspectives?
In conclusion, the power of the media cannot be underestimated. It sways public opinions and often set the nature of discourse. The need for responsible journalism cannot be stressed enough, especially when influential figures such as Trump are caught in the eye of a biased media storm.
The post Trump Bites Back: Sues Biased NY Times for $15 Billion appeared first on Real News Now.
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