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On Saturday it was announced that ABC News reached a $15 million settlement with Donald Trump after he filed a defamation lawsuit that seemed headed to trial. Not anymore:

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The settlement was publicly filed on Saturday, revealing that the two parties have come to an agreement and avoided a costly trial. According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.” Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees. 

Stephanopoulos and ABC News will issue statements of “regret” as an editor’s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article, about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file a defamation lawsuit.

Instead of learning any lessons from this, many in the media are actually criticizing ABC and their Disney ownership for caving to Trump and not fighting back. 

Speaking of “not learning any lessons,” CNN’s Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter said their industry needs to instead fight back and double down on the BS they push: 

“We’re going to have a very important job to do,” and everybody knows what Acosta’s definition of that “job” is: 

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Stelter agreed with Acosta that the media needs to stand up to those who simply want the press to not be so incredibly dishonest:

Jim Acosta on ABC settling defamation suit with Trump: “This is a time for our industry to stand firm and we’re going to have a very important job to do. And that’s not putting us on a pedestal…But we’re going to have a very important job to do, because Trump is not going to change his ways…you can’t have the news industry worrying about this sort of stuff when they’re just simply doing their jobs.” 

Brian Stelter: “Well if some bend the knee, others have to stand up straighter.”

It’s not just ABC News with a defamation problem:

Remember Nick Sandmann? CNN settled with him and didn’t “stand up” that time either. 

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These are the least self-aware “journalists” on the planet.

Trust in media is at a record low and yet these people just want to keep doubling down on the things that made that happen.

Bingo. It was worth $15 million to ABC to keep Trump’s lawyers from digging through their internal communications. Acosta and Stelter won’t discuss that though.