By Elizabeth Knight
Copyright smh
The White House later referred to Lyons as a “rude foreign Fake News loser”, which puts him in the company of a long line of respected journalists who have fallen foul of the president.
Standover tactics from Trump have become familiar ground for US media companies, which have been blasted by his free speech weapon of choice – defamation actions – aimed at stifling the negative commentary from large media organisations.
In doing so, Trump is weakening or potentially dismantling the infrastructure of the fourth estate. There are already fears for the independence of other US institutions, including the courts, the US Food and Drug Administration and its central bank – just to name a few.
A couple of the US’s largest media conglomerates – including Paramount, and the American Broadcasting Corp and its parent Disney – have recently chosen to settle legal actions brought against them by the president, choosing expediency and certainty over a desire for court adjudication.
