When Political Muckraking Has a Prohibitive Cost

Sometimes, it is Fate or Karma which brings rough Justice to those who have acted badly. And sometimes, it is their own mean-spirited, ill-begotten behavior which does them in.

 

Yes, I know. Karma is a sanskrit word meaning the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences. Your Fate, as it were.

But, we in the West subscribe to John Lennon's more simplistic definition that instant karma's gonna get you. Going to knock you on the head. You gonna break your body, darling. Pretty soon you're going to be dead.

Any way you look at it, on Saturday, we learned that ABC (Disney) and that wannabe journalist, the pompous political slimeball, George Snuffalopulous, had to pay $15MM in a settlement to President-Elect Donald Trump PLUS $1MM in attorney fees for calling him a convicted rapist on Snuffy’s March 10, 2024 little watched program, This Week. AND he has to apologize publicly for doing so.

I am sure ABC agreed to settle because, had Old George submitted to the deposition, we would have learned that a: he is a fraudulent Muckracker, and b: a trial would have been extremely costly to Disney and ABC’s reputation and bottom line.

They got off cheaply to make that major donation to the future President Donald J Trump Memorial Presidential Library. A favorable judgement for Trump after trial would have paid for the whole thing.

So, Bob Iger and Kimberly Godwin can thank their lucky stars that President Trump accepted their settlement offer. We have yet to see what the Fates hold for George Stephanopolous and his continued employment.

Next time, perhaps Georgie Porgie will practice a little humility and something called “journalistic integrity”.