On Sept. 16, President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against The New York Times and four of its reporters on the grounds that The Times defamed him during the 2024 election.
Trump said that the articles published by The New York Times included language that was designed to damage Trump’s reputation.
Suing for defamation of character can mean different things depending on what was said and who it was targeted at. For a person who isn’t famous, they must prove that there was a false statement of fact, that statement was communicated to others, the statement must clearly refer to the person, the statement caused reputational, emotional and financial damage and, most importantly, negligence.
For Trump’s case, it was a bit different, considering he is the president of the United States. Trump has to prove that The New York Times acted with actual malice instead of negligence to win the case, since he is a public figure.
In the lawsuit, Trump also points out that he experienced “enormous” economic losses, and he later asked for $15 billion in damages.
However, on Friday, a Florida federal judge threw out Trump’s defamation case, stating that the 85-page complaint was too long. The judge gave Trump’s lawyers 28 days to file an amended complaint.
This lawsuit is not the first time Trump has tried to sue news publications. He sued CBS News and ABC News for defamation and editing of a report, resulting in a combined $31 million settlement for Trump. He also sued the Wall Street Journal for an article that stated Trump sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, which he has denied on multiple occasions.
Jesse Scaccia, a Media, Communications and Journalism professor at Fresno State, said that he believes that Trump’s lawsuits create a negative view of the media, but sometimes, the media brings that upon themselves.
“Across the board, it seems, journalists have given up their traditional unbiased roles and have somewhat shamelessly taken sides,” Scaccia said. “From one perspective, I think Trump is trying to silence dissent using his office and power, which is chilling and horrible. From another perspective, we in the media also have to course-correct where we’re at and not use our platforms to help give our ‘sides’ an edge.”
The multiple lawsuits can also mirror what has happened at Fresno State.
For example, The Collegian was not exempt from legal threats of defamation. During the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) election last season, The Collegian faced lawsuit threats from Aidan Brown, a member of the Pre-Med club at Fresno State. Brown claimed that The Collegian’s reporting that Brown had falsified club meeting minutes was false and harmful to his reputation.
Though Brown never followed through with any legal proceedings, The Collegian reported that ASI had determined that the meeting minutes were false, which does not permit accurate grounds of defamation.
“Journalists are allowed to be critical, it is just that we can’t be doing so with false information or statements,” Scaccia said. “I think there is widespread under-education in our society surrounding the role of journalism in democracy and capitalism; the limitations of our role; and the protections of the people.”
Trump’s multiple lawsuits against news organizations mark a new precedent with the president. No sitting U.S. president has ever sued a media organization for defamation. The last time a sitting president took any sort of legal action against a news organization was Richard Nixon, who tried to sue The New York Times to block the Pentagon Papers.
“According to this USA Today report, as a businessman, he was involved in over 3,500 lawsuits,” Scaccia said. “This approach is in his blood. It’s also clear that Trump does not feel like it is part of his job as president to be a uniter, a peacemaker, and a diplomatic head of state, unfortunately.”
That’s not all this week — on Sept. 17, the ABC Network decided to pull Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show from the network “indefinitely” after comments he made regarding the motives of Tyler Robinson, who is suspected of killing Charlie Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump, condemned Kimmel’s comments and implied that the FCC may take legal action. The decision to pull Kimmel was made by Disney CEO Robert A. Iger and Dana Walden, who serves as Disney’s television chief.
Trump seemed pleased with this decision, congratulating ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done” on Truth Social. He also mentioned that Jimmy Fallon’s and Seth Meyers’ shows should also be discontinued.
With the lawsuit against The New York Times and Kimmel’s indefinite cancellation, Trump seems to be confident in his influence to suppress media organizations.
