Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Trump Sues MSNBC, Reuters and 18 Other News Orgs


Donald Trump is still very angry over the erroneous reporting about the financial losses at his Twitter clone, Truth Social, and in a new lawsuit filed Monday, the ex-president claimed that the reports were actually a vast media conspiracy involving “no less than 20 major media outlets.”

The Wrap reports the lawsuit comes following reports this month that Truth had lost $73 million in 2023. That figure turned out to be incorrect; the company has actually lost $31 million.

It’s not clear how the error occurred. The initial $73 million figure was attributed to a securities filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp, which is attempting to merge with Truth Social. The next day all report

The lawsuit, filed in Sarasota County, Florida on behalf of Trump Media & Technology Group, names several major news outlets, alongside more niche finance, politics or left-leaning websites as plaintiffs. Among them are MSNBC, Newsweek, CNBC, Reuters, The Daily Beast, the Miami Herald and its executive editor Alex Mena, Mediatie, The Hill, The New York Daily News, the Daily Mail, Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, Salon, Deadline, Miami Herald an.

The lawsuit alleges that the $73 million figure “was an utter fabrication. Each defendant, in apparent coordination, reported the exact same false number within approximately 24 hours of one another, each citing to a public Securities and Exchange Commission filing, in which the mystery $73 million loss appears nowhere.”


The lawsuit claims this was “a coordinated effort” to harm the reputation of Trump Media & Technology Group and to “torpedo” the merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp.

As evidence of this purported conspiracy, the lawsuit cites, essentially the existence of journalism. The suit calls out the similarity of the headlines about the losses, and that the articles about them were updated and corrected, but not taken down.

The lawsuit alleges defamation and injurious falsehood (defined as when falsehoods are deployed specifically to cause harm). Trump is demanding a jury trial, and seeks punitive payment of $1.5 billion, a gag order forcing the deletion of all articles about the losses, and unspecified other damages.

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