Posted on 12/18/2024 4:26:20 PM PST by God luvs America
George Stephanopoulos was repeatedly told by his executive producer not to “use the word rape” before going on the air to discuss Donald Trump but the ABC News anchor ignored the warning — a decision that cost the network $16 million, The Post has learned.
Parent company Disney’s capitulation last week in the defamation lawsuit by Trump against ABC News and Stephanopoulos shocked media and legal experts, but the damning revelation could help explain why Mouse House CEO Bob Iger signed off on the settlement so quickly.
The “This Week” host uttered that Trump was “liable for rape” while discussing the civil lawsuit won by journalist E. Jean Carroll during an interview with Republican lawmaker Nancy Mace in March.
“‘This Week’ producer said ‘don’t use the word rape’ before the segment started,” a network source told The Post. “The EP [executive producer] said it so many times.”
Disney’s chances of winning the lawsuit would be damaged if Stephanopoulos ignored his producer’s warning, legal experts told The Post.
Often, when dealing with litigious subjects, the company’s legal team may speak to producers ahead of time to advise on language so as to avoid lawsuits, which is customary in the media industry.
However, it is unclear whether ABC’s legal team had been involved before Stephanopoulos went on the air.
ABC News declined to comment. Reps for Disney and Stephanopoulos did not return requests for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
that’s a lot of money
He might have gotten away with it had he used the term “sexual assault”. It’s a nebulous term that can literally mean anything that involves socializing with anybody on any level.
he was much more interested in how many people he could influence to vote against Trump than how much money doing so would cost his network
This agrees with what Megyn Kelly reported, she has pretty good sources in the industry. Deposition would prove that he had been told that rape was incorrect and said it anyway, which would satisfy the Sulliven “actual malice” standard in court.
You have to screw up pretty bigly to be guilty of libel, and Steffy did so.
How does little Georgie still have a job?
Because he did exactly as he was told to. The "warnings" (wink wink) from the producer were to cover the korporation. Stephie was giving them deniability.
"All of you saw it. I warned him. You saw it."
maybe he serviced Diddy
Good move George :)
Too bad it didn’t come out of his personal salary.
“i said what you told me to say” moment
georges defiant “severed head” moment
“i though i was protected”?
you can’t make this stuff up
That’s why they settled. They didn’t want to have to admit that under oath. It shows the extreme bias of their “newscaster”
“that’s a lot of money”
It would be if Steffie was paying it, but I think he’s only out $1M, and the rest is chump change for ABC.
If I were advising Trump, I would have told him to hold out for $100M from ABC, or not even talk settlement until after the depositions were over. But I made the mistake of doubting Trump’s move to take out Biden last June, so I won’t second-guess him here. He knows what he’s doing.
George is an unethical slomeball.
Since its going to Trump’s future library, maybe they can name a bathroom after him to honor his contribution.
If PDJT had lost, they'd all be giving each other high-fives.
"It worked, didn't it?"
— Sen. Harry Reid
Take it out of the shrimp’s salary.
The broadcast is on a delay so the producer has time to hit the cutoff button.
lord farquart was always a d-bag in panties with a microphone
nothing wrong with panties it’s just they were never his size
No wonder they settled.
Georgie was insistent on saying the word “rape” as many times as he could when interviewing Nancy Mace. I went back and listened to that interview again. He should have been fired on the spot following that interview in response to the way he treated her. It’s the same way he treated the women raped by Bill Clinton.
He knew what he was doing. It was malice x 10.
I wonder how much in “royalties” he is getting for still supporting the Clintons and their agenda.
Just like E. Jean Carroll, both liars and frauds, everything they accuse Donald Trump of being.
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