Free Press Faces Legal Assault From Billionaires

President-elect Donald Trump has a history of using lawsuits as a cudgel, and he’s pursued several lengthy – and rarely successful – libel cases against publications. In one case he said was trying “to make [a reporter’s] life miserable, which I’m happy about.” Trump isn’t alone in this effort to vex or ruin the writers and publishers who cross him; Peter Thiel paid a Hollywood lawyer $10 million to sue Gawker Media on behalf of a suite of clients (Gawker filed for bankruptcy, and Gawker Media was sold to Univision), and Idaho billionaire Frank VanderSloot founded the “Guardian of True Liberty Fund” to aid other people who want to sue the “liberal press.” The underlying theme of these efforts “appears to be to punish critics… or even destroy entire media outlets,” Emily Bazelon writes for the New York Times Magazine. The lack of damage caps on libel lawsuits in the U.S., and the press’s historically low approval ratings – recently stoked by constant haranguing from the President-elect – has made for a volatile environment in which the superrich may potentially take down an entire media company, simply because they can. Breitbart News Network – a site that peddles in conspiracy theories popular with white nationalists, and is run by Trump’s campaign manager and future senior advisor in the White House, Steve Bannon – announced it is “preparing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a major media company.”