An old newspaper editor once described the perfect column as one “that is entertaining and just short of libel.”
I assume he was laughing as he said it. After all, who wants to flirt with libel? But now, the laughter comes from many of us looking on as President Donald Trump files a libel suit against Rupert Murdoch and his Wall Street Journal for the newest business involving the late sexual outlaw Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump wants $20 billion this time, for a note allegedly sent years ago to Epstein, which the Journal published last week. The note bears the president’s name and an outline of a naked woman. Not my letter, says Trump. Sure looks like it, says the Journal.
I’m loving this fight already, for the obvious reason that one of these parties has to lose.
Alive, Epstein was a great pal of Trump. Each man has admitted that much. Dead, Epstein is a ghost haunting this president from his grave, hinting at secrets once thought safely buried.
“Happy birthday,” says the lewd letter, sent on Epstein’s 50th birthday. “And may every day be another wonderful secret.”
I love the video clip of Trump and Epstein looking like a couple of entitled rich boys as they gaze upon a bevy of nearby young ladies dancing for the lads’ enjoyment. Who says money can’t buy you empty adulation?
That clip has been played repeatedly on CNN and MSNBC, but maybe not on Fox. I can only guess, since I only watch Fox here and there. If I watch it more than a few minutes at a time, I can feel myself hyperventilating, wondering how they can put so much misinformation on the air so often without getting buried in lawsuits.
So now it’s happened. Not to Fox but to its sister newspaper, Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. Trump wants billions this time. He’s already bullied the CBS and ABC networks into millions in legal submission, but this time he’s really ticked off because he thought he and Murdoch were kindred spirits.
And why should Trump think otherwise? Murdoch has been his great enabler. His media have stood there through all of Trump’s lies, all the hypocrisies, all the cruelty, all the sexual allegations that don’t even involve Epstein. And they’ve either covered for him or cheered him on.
And now, according to Trump, they’ve made the mistake of taking him on. He notes that the Journal published the contents of the letter but did not publish the drawing of the naked lady nor the letter itself.
“The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit, filed in a Miami federal court.
A Murdoch spokesman said in a statement, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
The great irony here is that Murdoch & Co., having done so much to prop up this president, now publish material that would mortally wound most politicians.
And they may pay a price for it — not just money, but a terrible chill descended upon all journalists who write the facts as they find them and then face the wrath of the most litigious, embittered president in American history.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” (Johns Hopkins University Press) and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home” (Johns Hopkins University).
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