‘Libel warfare’: ABC’s payout to Donald Trump sends a chill across US media | Disney-owned network’s $15mn defamation settlement has alarmed advocates of press freedom

> Disney’s $15mn defamation payout to Donald Trump has set a dangerous precedent for media freedom, said legal experts and news executives, as the incoming president threatens to “straighten out” the “corrupt” press.

> Disney-owned ABC News last week agreed to pay Trump the huge sum to settle a defamation suit he brought in March after star anchor George Stephanopoulos said on-air that the former president had been found “liable for rape”.

> A New York jury found Trump liable in a civil case for sexual abuse, but not rape.

> While Stephanopoulos in May said he would not be “cowed out of doing my job”, on Saturday he and ABC expressed their “regret” over his comment about Trump.

> The network’s decision left some lawyers, journalists and media executives puzzled — and prompted fears that Trump, who has threatened libel lawsuits against news media for decades, could use presidential power to muzzle the press.

> “I genuinely don’t know what ABC was thinking when they agreed to do this . . . Unless there is something we don’t know, it looks like it was a weak suit,” said Genevieve Lakier, a law professor at the University of Chicago. “For ABC to give in and settle so quickly, surely it will embolden similar suits. I am disturbed.”

> ABC’s decision to settle was “dangerous” and would have a “chilling effect”, said Samantha Barbas, a University of Iowa law professor. “It will embolden Trump and his allies to keep bringing these libel suits. If they feel they can silence the press or control the press, intimidate it in any way, that’s going to be a real incentive for them to come forward with more claims.”

> Trump on Monday said he would bring additional defamation lawsuits against media groups. “I think you have to do it because they’re very dishonest. We need a great media. We need a fair media,” he said. “We have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections.”

!ping SNEK