The Secrets of ABC News: Did They Pay $15 Million to Hide Something Even

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It was an embarrassment and a disgrace: ABC News not only paid $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump — and an additional $1 million for his (considerable) attorney fees — but was also forced to issue a formal apology on behalf of their biggest news star.

ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.

But why?

ABC News is owned by Disney. The House of Mouse has deep pockets. Furthermore, Donald Trump is pushing 80 and in a high-stress job. He’s had a pair of assassination attempts over the past year! You’d expect a company like Disney to drag out a defamation case.

You know the drill: Tie up the courts with every objection and delaying tactic imaginable and see if you push the case to 2030 (or whatever). Hey, Disney can certainly afford the attorney fees! Besides, it’s a smart strategy; there are always exceptions in American law, but more often than not, defamation is considered a personal tort — when the plaintiff dies, so does the case.

So if you’re ABC News, why not drag out the case and try to spare yourself the embarrassment?

The answer is obvious: Paying $15 million, apologizing, and throwing Stephanopoulos under the bus was the best option available, which means the alternative must be worse.

Creatively and content-wise, Disney might be infected with the Woke Virus, but on a corporate level, they’re still a for-profit company. They exist in a capitalistic system — and in capitalism, people make deals out of their own self-interest. Paying the money and emasculating Stephanopoulos was better than the alternative.

The alternative was to undergo a lengthy discovery process.

That’s what killed Fox News.

Sure, paying $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems was a bummer, but what really kneecapped FNC was when Dominion’s lawyers rifled through the texts, emails, and private communications of Fox’s biggest stars. It not only triggered an even greater PR nightmare, but it cost the network its top-rated star, Tucker Carlson.

The private conversations of other talent, including Sean Hannity, were also leaked.

Undoubtedly, Disney’s lawyers did a deep dive on their own side. The standard legal protocol would be to review all the internal documents to assess vulnerabilities. This would include business emails, personal messages, texts, private “jokes” — anything that might reflect an intent to defame.

And that’s key, because the legal standard of defamation for a public figure (like Trump) is different than it is for you and me. (Well, mainly for you: I’m a big-shot PJ Media writer, after all.) But the point is, it’s far easier for private citizens to sue for defamation. Public figures need to prove actual malice instead of negligent behavior.

Typically, actual malice requires intent — that the other party knew they were wrong, but proceeded anyway.

George Stephanopoulos isn’t a lawyer. So why didn’t Disney argue that poor, innocent George was confused about the legal terms? Or that he was using a “layman’s definition” instead of precise legalese?

That plus delaying tactics would make far more sense for an enormous corporation like Disney than throwing in the towel, neutering Stephanopoulos, and eating a ton of crappy PR.

Unless, of course, Trump’s lawyers were going to find (and leak) something during the discovery process that would be even more costly.

I’m sure they studied the Fox News legal fallout. And obviously, they value George Stephanopoulos: they spent a lot of time and money to build him up from a Clinton hack to the face of their news division.

But this is the network that was stridently anti-Trump:

Whatever Disney was trying to hide, it must’ve been pretty bad. Bad enough, at least, that paying $15 million and issuing a groveling apology was the better option.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?