Calls to the Media: Fight Trump’s Lawsuits

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The latest legal action came on Monday when Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit against the pollster J. Ann Selzer, her polling firm, The Des Moines Register and Gannett, the newspaper’s parent company.Credit…Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

To the Editor:

Re “Trump Sues Des Moines Register, Escalating Threats Against the Media” (news article, Dec. 18):

Emboldened by his $15 million conquest of ABC News, Donald Trump is now going after The Des Moines Register and a pollster, J. Ann Selzer, in another effort to intimidate the media.

Their “crime” was publishing a poll that showed Mr. Trump trailing in Iowa, which he eventually won.

Mr. Trump’s attorneys know damn well that a newspaper is allowed to be wrong. It is not allowed to be malicious. But they want to put the fear of God into every publisher and editor.

The media needs to combat this vindictive prosecution by Mr. Trump. The defendants need to seek a level of damages double the sum that Mr. Trump seeks in his persecutive lawsuit. If he sues for $15 million, he should be forced to pay $30 million. The media needs to extract pain from those striving to make it surrender its mission as the public’s watchdog.

Jay Margolis
Delray Beach, Fla.

To the Editor:

Hopefully The Des Moines Register will not fold as easily as ABC News and will vigorously defend its First Amendment free press rights. ABC News, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times have all set a frightening precedent by wilting to the threat of Donald Trump’s vengeance.

This does not bode well for those who believe that the press has a duty to speak truth to a power that has little regard for truth, and to the powerless.

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