In an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R–S.C.) on ABC's This Week last March, host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly and inaccurately asserted that Donald Trump, now the president-elect, had been "found liable for rape." A week later, Trump sued ABC and Stephanopoulos for defamation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, noting that a jury had deemed Trump civilly liable for "sexual abuse," not "rape." Over the weekend, ABC News announced that it had reached a $15 million settlement with Trump in the form of a contribution to Trump's presidential library. ABC also agreed to cover $1 million in Trump's legal expenses.
The settlement is highly unusual in the annals of Trump's many lawsuits against news outlets, which typically feature claims with a much weaker legal and empirical basis. Some Trump critics explicitly or implicitly faulted ABC for folding, saying its decision is apt to have a chilling impact on journalism. But any such threat can be mitigated by applying normal standards of journalistic care—standards that Stephanopoulos conspicuously failed to uphold in this case.
