CBS is considering "obeying in advance" by settling a frivolous lawsuit from Trump. As Scott Lemieux points out, this is basically a bribe. Still, the landscape is what it is. The Courts are not a safeguard for the First Amendment anymore and Trump will pervert the Executive into his weapon.
The question is now: what will the behavior of the news media be when they have a credible story of Trump's corruption? Will they publish? Will the kill the story to avoid payback? How will actually independent sources like Pro Publica survive Trump's lawfare? (Hey, if they can use the term, so can we.)
The Orban playbook involves suppressing the independence of the news media. American media has historically been independent, but that is hardly the case right now. You have Disney/ABC capitulating and now Paramount/CBS. The LA Times and Washington Post are in the tank, too.
We can talk about how Democratic messaging was "bad" all we want, but a corrupt news environment makes all that talk moot.
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