Letters of Note
I loved this letter from the vice president of The New York Times, David McCraw, who told Donald Trump to 'put up or shut up' over demands for a retraction and apology after the newspaper published allegations about Trump's serial groping of women.
'Stand silent or be punished' was the message from the Trump camp, but to its great credit the NYT told this snarling, narcissistic bully to 'bog off'.
Donald Trump reminds me of another overbearing tycoon from the UK, the late and unlamented Robert Maxwell, no stranger to the libel courts and who was ultimately exposed as a shyster and fraudster.
So I tip my hat to Mr McCraw and his newspaper for standing up to these attempts to bully them into silence.
'Stand silent or be punished' was the message from the Trump camp, but to its great credit the NYT told this snarling, narcissistic bully to 'bog off'.
Donald Trump reminds me of another overbearing tycoon from the UK, the late and unlamented Robert Maxwell, no stranger to the libel courts and who was ultimately exposed as a shyster and fraudster.
So I tip my hat to Mr McCraw and his newspaper for standing up to these attempts to bully them into silence.
The NewYorkTimes Company
David McCraw
Vice President and
Assistant General Counsel
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
tel 212.556-4031
fax 212.556-4634
mccraw@nytimes .com
October 13, 2016
VIA ELECTRONIC DELIVERY
Marc E. Kasowitz, Esq.
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres &Friedman LLP 1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019-6799
Re: Demand for Retraction
VIA ELECTRONIC DELIVERY
Marc E. Kasowitz, Esq.
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres &Friedman LLP 1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019-6799
Re: Demand for Retraction
Dear Mr. Kasowitz:
I write in response to your letter of October 12, 2016 to Dean Baquet concerning your client Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States. You write concerning our article "Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately" and label the article as "libel per se." You ask that we "remove it from [our] website, and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology." We decline to do so.
The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a "piece of ass." Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.
But there is a larger and much more important point here. The women quoted in our story spoke out on an issue of national importance - indeed, an issue that Mr. Trump himself discussed with the whole nation watching during Sunday night's presidential debate. Our reporters diligently worked to confirm the women's accounts. They provided readers with Mr. Trump's response, including his forceful denial of the women's reports. It would have been a disservice not just to our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices.
We did what the law allows:We published newsworthy information about a subject of deep public concern. If Mr. Trump disagrees, if he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to say and that the law of this country forces us and those who would dare to criticize him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight.
Sincerely,
David E. McCraw
I write in response to your letter of October 12, 2016 to Dean Baquet concerning your client Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States. You write concerning our article "Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately" and label the article as "libel per se." You ask that we "remove it from [our] website, and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology." We decline to do so.
The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a "piece of ass." Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.
But there is a larger and much more important point here. The women quoted in our story spoke out on an issue of national importance - indeed, an issue that Mr. Trump himself discussed with the whole nation watching during Sunday night's presidential debate. Our reporters diligently worked to confirm the women's accounts. They provided readers with Mr. Trump's response, including his forceful denial of the women's reports. It would have been a disservice not just to our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices.
We did what the law allows:We published newsworthy information about a subject of deep public concern. If Mr. Trump disagrees, if he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to say and that the law of this country forces us and those who would dare to criticize him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight.
Sincerely,
David E. McCraw
