In his first post-election news conference, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to “straighten out” the “corrupt” US press.
Before he’s even taken office, he’s already made efforts to shape the media in his favor — tapping loyalists for publicly funded outlets and launching unprecedented lawsuits against newspapers and pollsters that observers worry are the signs of escalating intimidation and censorship tactics.
On Monday, the billionaire sued pollster Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register newspaper and its parent company Gannett over a pre-election poll that — wrongly, come Election Day — saw him behind in the state.
That suit came after broadcaster ABC paid $15 million, plus legal fees, to settle a defamation suit after one of its reporters repeatedly said Trump had been found liable for “rape” — in fact, he had been liable for sexual abuse.
Several legal scholars argued the outlet would have likely prevailed in court against Trump.
ABC staffers have complained to US media that the channel is setting a precedent that media should buckle to Trump — a potentially distressing signal, since the broadcaster is hardly alone in being sued.
Also being targeted by Trump’s lawyers is famed reporter Bob Woodward, over publishing taped interviews with the president. Trump is arguing that Woodward was authorized to record them for journalistic purposes, but not to publish the audio.
Broadcaster CBS, meanwhile, has been sued after Trump claimed CBS favorably edited an interview with election rival Kamala Harris.
Trump called it “a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 US presidential election.”
Free speech expert Charles Tobin, speaking to CNN, called the suit “dangerous and frivolous.”
Risk of self-censorship
Even if Trump loses in court, his willingness to launch lawsuits “creates a chilling effect,” Melissa Camacho, a communications professor at San Francisco State University, told AFP.
“What happens is that outlets start engaging in a practice of self-censorship.”
Khadijah Costley White, an associate professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, said the lawsuits could also push media coverage to be more favorable to the president.
“If he gains a concession like he did with the recent ABC News settlement, gets his perceived adversaries to back down, or scares the press into only giving him favorable coverage, those are all wins,” she said.
There are also procedural ways Trump — who ran on a lack of trust in mainstream media and government institutions — can fight the press.
During his first term, his administration once went more than 300 days without an official media briefing by the White House press secretary.
And if Trump’s White House does hold daily news conferences, he could get rid of seats reserved for mainstream outlets.
“Make it first come, first served. There is no reason these left-wing groups should be guaranteed a seat,” former White House press secretary Sean Spicer wrote in a recent opinion piece for the conservative Washington Times newspaper.
The “left-wing groups” in question? NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post — mainstream outlets that are at times regarded as having a liberal bias but among the most reputable news outlets in the country.
The irony is that even if his White House shuts down traditional media, Trump himself, who has a penchant for chatting with journalists, might still talk to reporters more than outgoing President Joe Biden, who largely avoided interviews with national outlets.
Voice of America
Those outside the United States can also expect a change.
The incoming president has tapped hard-line loyalist and election denier Kari Lake to be the new director of Voice of America.
VOA has reach around the world, with programming in a slew of African, Asian and European languages.
It receives US funding but is generally considered a reliable, independent media operation, covering global and US news for international audiences.
During his first term, Michael Pack, Trump’s head of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, raised concerns when he moved in 2020 to strip an internal firewall at the organization meant to insulate the newsroom from political interference.
According to Trump, Lake will help “ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”