Trump’s $1B lawsuit threat casts shadow over the BBC, but it could also be a bluff
LONDON AP President Donald Trump s threat to bring a billion-dollar lawsuit against the BBC has cast a shadow over the British broadcaster s future but it could also be a bluff with little legal merit The president s lawyer sent the threat to the BBC over the way a documentary edited his Jan speech before a mob of his followers stormed the U S Capitol Trump s history of suing news media companies sometimes winning multimillion-dollar settlements is part of a long-running grievance against the industry he describes as fake news that has often focused a critical eye on his actions But Trump faces fundamental challenges to getting a scenario to court never mind taking it to trial He would also have to deal with the harsh glare of publicity around his provocative pep talk the day Congress was voting to certify President-elect Joe Biden s win in the electoral process that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him If he sues he opens a Pandora s box and inside is every damning quote he s ever uttered about the steal commented attorney Mark Stephens an international media lawyer who practices in the U S and U K The BBC documentary The BBC s Panorama series aired the hourlong documentary titled Trump A Second Chance days before the U S presidential electoral process It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the speech delivered almost an hour apart into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and fight like hell Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump revealed he desired supporters to demonstrate peacefully BBC Chairman Samir Shah apologized Monday for the misleading edit that he commented gave the impression of a direct call for violent action Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness quit Sunday over accusations of bias and misleading editing From to letter to lawsuit Trump s options to sue in the U K evaporated two weeks ago when the one-year deadline to file a lawsuit expired Trump could still bring a defamation claim in several U S states and his lawyer cited Florida law in a letter to the BBC Filing a lawsuit and demanding money is one thing but prevailing in court is much different To succeed Trump would have to clear multiple hurdles to get a development before a jury Before any of that could happen Trump faces a more fundamental challenge The BBC effort was not aired in the U S and the BBC s streaming system is also not available there Americans could not have thought less of him because of a scheme they could not watch Stephens noted The other ticklish predicament for Trump s lawyer was that Trump s reputation was already pretty battered after Jan he mentioned Alleging Panorama caused additional harm when your reputation is already in tatters is a tough sell Trump was impeached on a charge of inciting insurrection over the Jan attack on the Capitol by specific of his supporters though he was acquitted by the Senate The demands Trump s lawyer Alejandro Brito threatened the BBC with a defamation lawsuit for no less than billion The letter spelled out the figure and used all nine zeros in numeric form The letter demanded an apology to the president and a full and fair retraction of the documentary along with other false defamatory disparaging misleading or inflammatory statements about Trump It also announced the president should be appropriately compensated for overwhelming financial and reputational harm The letter cites Florida s defamation statute that requires a letter be sent to news organizations five days before any lawsuit can be filed If the BBC does not comply with the demands by p m EST Friday then Trump will enforce his legal rights the letter revealed The BBC is on notice it reported Other media lawsuits While a great number of legal experts have dismissed the president s insists against the media as having little chance of success he has won specific lucrative settlements against U S media companies In July Paramount which owns CBS agreed to pay million to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over a Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris Trump alleged that the interview was edited to enhance how Harris the Democratic nominee for president in sounded That settlement came as the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission launched an scrutiny that threatened to complicate Paramount s need for administration approval to merge with Skydance Media Last year ABC News announced it would pay million to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been revealed civilly liable for raping writer E Jean Carroll A jury uncovered that he was liable for sexually abusing her Trump petitioned the U S Supreme Court on Monday to throw out that finding Threats that don t materialize George Freeman the executive director of the Media Law Supply Center in New York noted the billion-dollar figure cited by Trump s lawyer was totally meaningless Freeman recounted BBC Radio that Trump s frequent and often unsuccessful litigation against the media is surpassed by the threatening letters that don t lead to lawsuits They re just there to threaten and to scare media he doesn t like Freeman mentioned Stephens stated if Trump were somehow to win billions from the BBC it could crush the news organization that is mostly funded through a fee charged to all television owners in the U K But he reported that outcome was unlikely and the broadcaster should stand its ground He recommended Trump take the masses relations win and avoid the damage that could come from revisiting the events of Jan that would be dredged up in any trial He explained Trump was due an apology which Shah offered for the BBC not upholding high journalistic standards The question is Did it cause harm in people s minds he mentioned Because he was elected afterwards it doesn t appear it did Source
