MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend spoke out Sunday about the resolution of President-elect Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against ABC and its news anchor George Stephanopoulos, suggesting that the result might have "a real chilling effect."

Although apparently worried about the impact of legal penalties for imprecise speech now that a price has been exacted from a fellow traveler, Sanders-Townsend sang a different tune when Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million over suggestions that its machines were used to rig the 2020 election.

Background

President-elect Donald Trump sued ABC and George Stephanopoulos earlier this year concerning a March 10 interview wherein the ABC News host falsely stated that the Republican had been found liable by multiple juries for the rape of E. Jean Carroll, referring to the verdicts in Carroll's sexual battery and defamation lawsuits. The complaint accused Stephanopoulos of acting "with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth."

The ABC News host said in conversation with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-N.C.), "You endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape"; "Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury"; "I'm asking you a question about why you endorsed someone who's been found liable for rape"; "it was a civil court that found him liable for rape"; and "why are you supporting someone who's been found liable for rape?"

'I think the lesson here going forward is the truth does matter.'

Although insistent, Stephanopoulos was dead wrong. Jurors in neither case found Trump liable for rape.

According to documents filed in a U.S. District Court on Saturday, ABC settled the action, agreeing to pay $15 million toward Trump's yet-to-be established presidential library as well as to pay Trump's attorneys $1 million in legal fees.

ABC News also appended the following editor's note at the bottom of the article that corresponded with the offending interview: "ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC's This Week on March 10, 2024."

A spokesman for the network told CBS News in a statement, "We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing."

While ABC News was apparently pleased with the result, Sanders-Townsend — the leftist talking head who previously took umbrage with the use of the word "raid" when used in reference to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago — suggested that Stephanopoulos was in the right and the result was troubling.

Selective concern

When Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million in April 2023 to settle its defamation lawsuit with Dominion, Sanders-Townsend — who worked on the Biden-Harris transition team in 2020, then as a spokeswoman for the Biden White House — adopted a jubilant tone.

After mocking the statement that the right-of-center network released, suggesting that Fox News' mention of journalistic integrity made her "eyes [get] very big," Sanders-Townsend said, "I think that going forward, every entity that enter the media apparatus — politicians, campaigns — they now have to decide how they are going to engage with Fox News going forward."

Noting the expensive nature of the settlement, Sanders-Townsend suggested, "Someone at Fox is going to have to answer for this. I highly doubt, though, it will end up being talent."

"I think the lesson here going forward is the truth does matter," said Sanders-Townsend. "It is very important to speak plainly, to speak with facts, and when someone is lying to call it a lie and to show your work as to why that is."

When it came time for ABC News to pay the price for falsehoods on the air, Sanders-Townsend took a different approach.

Responding to a guest's suggestion that the press has an obligation to be "straightforward and objective when it comes to Donald Trump," Sanders-Townsend said on MSNBC's "The Weekend" Sunday, "I would just say, I mean, this feels like it has a real chilling effect."

"Like, I mean, shout out to the standards department. Standards is always making sure that we are keeping the bar high and substantive and accurate," continued Sanders-Townsend. "But what George Stephanopoulos said in that interview — I mean, it seems to hold up with what the judge said after the fact. And now his news organization and himself, George Stephanopoulos himself, is paying $1 million of his own money to the lawyers and ABC is $15 million. It's insane."

Sanders-Townsend was not the only liberal talking head to take a markedly different approach to the two settlements.

CNN's Brian Stelter appeared giddy when reporting on the Fox settlement last year, telling Yahoo Finance, "Almost $800 million dollars for these lies that were spread on television. This is going to be a landmark moment for accountability when it comes to the big lie."

Stelter was devoid of that enthusiasm following the ABC News settlement, agreeing with CNN talking head Jim Acosta that "there's just going to be a chilling effect on the news industry."

"The answer is yes. Media lawyers are worried about this. They're preparing for it," said Stelter. "They are preparing their newsrooms for it with the expectation of more lawsuits, more leak investigations, more subpoenas in the months and years to come."

"You know, there will be some attempt to troll as a result of this," continued Stelter. "We are in a climate where more of this kind of litigation is expected."

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