Trump hates the media, and he has instilled reflexive contempt for news agencies into his followers. His concern isn’t for accurate reporting. His motives are personal, which his lawsuits make explicit. After losing reelection in 2020, Trump sued CNN for $475 million, claiming that references to his court-rejected allegations of mass voter fraud as “the Big Lie” defamed him. He lost the suit, and late last month, a second appeals court refused to rehear the case, leaving in place Judge Singhal’s 2023 decision to dismiss because “Trump alleges no false statements of fact.” If a statement isn’t false, it can’t be defamatory. While running for reelection again in 2024, Trump sued ABC for stating he had been “found liable for rape,” after he had been found liable for “sexual abuse” of Jean Carroll. Trump had already lost a nearly identical lawsuit against Carroll in 2023 when Judge Kaplan clarified that “the New York Penal Law definition of rape is limited to penile penetration,” but “Mr.…
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