MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday [4-30-17] continued its assault on press freedom and attacks on the media, with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus reiterating Trump’s desire to make it easier to sue media outlets who publish stories unfavorable to the president.
‘I think it’s something we have looked at, and how that gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story,’ Priebus told ABC’s Jonathan Karl. ‘But when you have articles out there that have no basis or fact, and we’re sitting here on 24/7 cable companies, writing stories about constant contacts with Russia, and all these other matters.’
In his attacks against the media throughout his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed that he would ‘open up our libel laws’ in order to ‘have people sue you like you’ve never got sued before.’
‘I’m going to open up our libel laws, so when [newspapers] write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,’ Trump said last year. ‘When The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.’ “
-Marina Fang, “Trump Administration Still Considering Making It Easier To Sue Media,” Huffington Post online, April 30, 2017 10:46am