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☆ Trump sues CBS over ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Harris. Legal experts call it ‘frivolous and dangerous’
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-01 | by ( Rashard Rose | Jon Passantino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against CBS Broadcasting Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc., demanding $10 billion in damages over the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump’s legal counsel argued that “CBS’s misconduct was unconscionable because it amounts to a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.”A spokesperson for CBS said that Trump’s claims against “60 Minutes” are false. “The Interview was not doctored; and 60 MINUTES did not hide any part of the Vice President’s answer to the question at issue. 60 MINUTES fairly presented the Interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it. The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it,” the spokesperson continued.

Persons: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Harris, Trump, Matthew Kacsmaryk, ”, –, Charles Tobin, Ballard Spahr, Floyd Abrams, ” Rebecca Tushnet, Frank Stanton, ” Trump, “, CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Kaanita Iyer Organizations: CNN, CBS Broadcasting Inc, CBS Interactive Inc, Court, Northern District of, CBS, Amarillo Division, Trump, Presidential, “, Pentagon, Harvard Law School Locations: Northern District, Northern District of Texas, Northern Texas, Amarillo, Texas, Henderson , Nevada

“Allowing confidential sources to be ordered revealed means that the public will have less information. Abrams represented New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days in jail after being held in contempt for refusing to divulge a source in an investigation of leaks about an undercover CIA agent. “The First Amendment interest in protecting journalists’ sources is at its highest in cases, like this, involving reporting on national security,” Philbin wrote in court papers. That settlement resulted in a contempt order being vacated against a journalist who was being asked to name her sources. Courts have recognized that journalists have a limited privilege to keep confidential their sources, allowing reporters to block subpoenas in the past.

Persons: Catherine Herridge, Yanping Chen, Chen, Herridge, Christopher Cooper, —, It’s, ”, Floyd Abrams, Abrams, Judith Miller, Cooper, Herridge’s, Chen's, Patrick Philbin, Trump, “, ” Philbin, they’ve, Steven Hatfill, Gabe Rottman, Rottman, ” ___ Richer Organizations: WASHINGTON, FBI, Fox News, U.S, District, New York Times, CIA, CBS, Justice Department, White, CBS News, Department, Courts, Freedom, Press, group's Technology Locations: Washington, Virginia, Boston

☆ A former Fox News correspondent is refusing to reveal a source. Her fate is now in a judge’s hands
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Citing documents reviewed by Fox News, Herridge reported that Chen was the subject of a federal probe. In an effort to prove her case, Chen subpoenaed Herridge and Fox News, with the hope of unmasking the source(s) for the stories. Fox News and Herridge aggressively fought the move, arguing that Cooper should quash the subpoenas because of First Amendment protections afforded to the press. Journalists should not be forced to disclose confidential sources,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to me. “It will make other reporters who can’t afford a legal fight let alone harsh sanctions think twice about promising sources confidentiality.

Persons: Catherine Herridge, Cooper, Yanping Chen, Herridge, Chen, Herridge’s, “, ”, ” Herridge, Chen’s, —, Catherine Herridge’s, Floyd Abrams, ” Abrams, Abrams, ” Caitlin Vogus, Vogus Organizations: CNN, CBS News, Fox News, U.S, District of Columbia, Federal Bureau of, “ Fox News, CBS, Pentagon, Department, Justice, Press Foundation

PBS acquired the docuseries “ Becoming Frida Kahlo,” about the artist, to replace it and it premiered last week. Political Cartoons View All 1179 ImagesPBS has also bought a few more scripted series that were made outside of the U.S., she said. Most of them are aimed at PBS' streaming service, although the Danish series “Seaside Hotel” has aired on the television network. A British drama about the lives of people fighting World War II, “World on Fire,” is premiering its second season in October. Other scripted series are on the docket, including “Unforgotten,” “Van Der Valk,” and “Little Bird,” the latter about an adopted woman who tries to investigate her personal history.

Persons: Ken Burns, ”, Paula Kerger, John Leguizamo, Kerger, Frida Kahlo, Burns, Jerry Brown, Floyd Abrams, Max Roach, “, Vladimir Putin's, Nova, “ Unforgotten, Van Der Valk Organizations: PBS, Hollywood, Public Broadcasting Service, “, Elon Musk's, Twitter, Houston Astros, Associated Press Locations: American Buffalo, U.S, Danish, ”, Boston, Elon, Mariupol

☆ Disney has a ‘strong case’ against DeSantis over his ‘retaliatory campaign,’ First Amendment experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Disney just cast Ron DeSantis as the villain in a story of good versus evil. DeSantis responded to the lawsuit by issuing a statement through his communications director, Taryn Fenske. “It’s a serious First Amendment case,” Floyd Abrams, the renowned First Amendment attorney of Pentagon Papers fame, told me. The truth is that characterizing Disney as a creepy company that aims to morally bankrupt kids has become a mainstream position in GOP media circles. DeSantis knows this — which is why he was happy to pick this battle with the company.

☆ Fox bosses ‘shut down’ fact checking with 2020 conspiracies, Dominion lawyer says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Marshall Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Dominion is suing Fox News over the right-wing channel’s airing of false claims of election fraud around the 2020 presidential election. Fox News argued that Dominion should instead rely on the “lengthy depositions” that these witnesses already gave. It claims Dominion hasn’t shown anything strong enough to overcome the high bar that the First Amendment provides, protecting good-faith journalists from speech-chilling defamation lawsuits. Dominion lawyer Rodney Smolla said its high-stakes defamation case against Fox News will protect the public discourse and hold accountable people who deliberately lied about the 2020 election. “They endorsed,” Murdoch said, referring to Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and former host Lou Dobbs.

The hundreds of pages of new documents include previously unreleased excerpts from key depositions, including Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, and are part of Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The transcript was part of a trove of text messages, emails, and other material from Fox News executives and on-air personalities that were made public Tuesday as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the right-wing channel. “Do you believe that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” Murdoch was asked by Dominion lawyers. The hundreds of pages of new documents that came out Tuesday include previously unreleased excerpts from key depositions, including Murdoch, and are part of Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News. Fox News has not only vigorously denied the claims, it has insisted it is “proud” of its 2020 election coverage.

☆ Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that Fox News hosts endorsed false stolen election claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, acknowledged in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that some Fox News hosts endorsed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Murdoch’s remarks were made public in a legal filing as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. In his deposition, Murdoch rejected that the right-wing talk network as an entity endorsed former President Donald Trump’s election lies. “Some of our commentators were endorsing it,,” Murdoch said, according to the filing, when asked about the talk hosts’ on-air positions about the election. Top legal experts told CNN after last week’s filing that Dominion’s legal position appeared strong.

☆ ‘It’s a major blow’: Dominion has uncovered ‘smoking gun’ evidence in case against Fox News, legal experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

While the legal experts cautioned that they would like to see Fox News’ formal legal response to the filing, they all indicated in no uncertain terms that the evidence compiled in Dominion’s legal filing represents a serious threat to the channel. On one occasion, Carlson demanded that Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich be fired after she fact-checked a Trump tweet pushing election fraud claims. Tushnet said that in all of her years practicing and teaching law, she had never seen such damning evidence collected in the pre-trial phase of a defamation suit. “Donald Trump seems to be very good at generating unprecedented situations.”David Korzenik, an attorney who teaches First Amendment law and represents a number of media organizations, said that the filing showed Dominion’s case against Fox News has serious teeth. “Their motion for summary judgment takes an extreme and unsupported view of defamation law and rests on an accounting of the facts that has no basis in the record.”But the attorneys said Dominion’s filing showed it had built a powerful case against Fox.

☆ News outlets raced to publish Trump’s lawsuit against Woodward. Experts say the suit ‘has no legal merit whatsoever’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Trump this week filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, alleging that when Woodward published audio of their interviews in his audiobook it breached his rights by constituting copyright violations. Most legal experts CNN contacted on Tuesday quickly dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against Woodward as meritless. But instead of major outlets pausing to gather this much-needed context after Trump filed his suit against Woodward, most newsrooms simply published stories echoing his complaint. Judge Donald Middlebrooks pointed to Trump’s “pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes” as he took note of several other failed lawsuits Trump has brought in recent years. It is also dismaying given the larger discussion among the press over the years about not succumbing hook, line, and sinker for Trump’s stunts.

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