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Trump’s New Line of Attack Against the Media Gains Momentum [1]

['David Enrich']

Date: 2025-02-07

Media lawyers scoffed last year when President Trump sued two news organizations for producing journalism that, he claimed, violated laws meant to protect consumers from things like deceptive advertising.

They’re not laughing anymore.

First Amendment experts still believe that Mr. Trump’s cases, against CBS News and The Des Moines Register, lack legal merit. But they now also realize that the lawsuits are proving effective at harassing the press — and that more of them are probably on the way.

The focus of the experts’ concern is the decision within Paramount, CBS’s parent company, to try to settle one of those lawsuits, showing that even a far-fetched legal argument can yield results. CBS would be the second major media company to recently reach a settlement with Mr. Trump, after ABC paid $16 million to resolve a defamation suit in December.

The settlement talks between Paramount and Mr. Trump are likely to encourage the president, his allies and others to continue deploying the new strategy of suing media companies under consumer protection laws, said Adam Steinbaugh, a lawyer representing a defendant in The Des Moines Register suit.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/business/media/trump-media-lawsuits.html

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