Businesses are already 'capitulating to Trump' for fear of retribution

When the news broke that ABC News had agreed to give $15 million to Donald Trump's presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit against them and "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos, many of Trump's critics were bitterly disappointed.

As they saw it, ABC News was caving in and should have fought a frivolous lawsuit harder.

But according to The Bulwark's Jonathan V. Last, ABC News is not alone in that regard. In a column published by the conservative website on December 16 and headlined "Weakness Is a Provocation," Last stresses that a variety of businesses — from media outlets to tech companies — are "capitulating" to Trump in the hope that they will avoid being targeted for retribution. And he includes Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as examples.

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"While it might be against the interest of ABC News to sell out its journalists," Last laments, "it's very much in the interest of the Walt Disney Company to be on good terms with a president who is open about punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends…. We talked about Trump's tribute/protection racket last week and how Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have gotten right with Big Orange. Add Disney to the list."

Last adds, "This is an important development because Bezos and Zuckerberg are founder/owners. They have gigantic personal stakes in their companies and thus, a great deal to lose."

Last cites examples of major media outlets that have been "capitulating" to Trump.

"Over at the Los Angeles Times," Last explains, "the billionaire owner is openly putting his thumb on the scale to make the paper more hospitable to Trump. Writers and editors at the Washington Post are running for the exits as Bezos' new Trump-friendly publisher mucks about. Time Magazine named Trump 'Man of the Year,' and the magazine's owner said that Trump's election 'marks a time of great promise' for America — and that 'we look forward to working together.'"

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Last continues, "(MSNBC hosts) Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski presented themselves at Trump's court to reset their relationship and then discovered a delicate sensibility concerning on-air criticism of Trump cabinet nominees. And now Disney has cut off ABC News at the knees and put everyone in its news division on notice that they will not be supported by corporate if they make enemies with Trump World."

Journalists, according to Last, won't necessarily avoid all criticism of Trump but will tone it down in the hope of avoiding frivolous lawsuits.

"In newsrooms all over America today," Last writes, "journalists are talking to lawyers and coming up with lists of words and phrases that are potentially more actionable than others and making those words and phrases verboten."

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Jonathan V. Last's full column for The Bulwark is available at this link.