New York University professor Scott Galloway criticized major media outlets Friday after being corrected for calling President Donald Trump a “rapist.”
In an episode of “Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway” with guest host Reid Hoffman, who co-founded LinkedIn, Galloway mentioned the time MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski corrected him on-air.
“I’m on Morning Joe, and I call the president an insurrectionist and a rapist, and Mika stops the show to clarify he was found guilty of sexual abuse,” Galloway said.
Co-host Kara Swisher chimed in and said “Liable.”
Galloway answered.
“Oh, excuse me, sexual liable. He was found liable of sexual abuse,” Galloway said.
“But look at what we’re doing, all right? And by the way, the judge then went on in his sentencing to say the street term for that is rape, right? So what do you have? You have a group of people—this is straight out of the fascist handbook—[who] intimidate anyone who says anything negative about you. And if these companies, in my opinion, had more fidelity to American values and the very important role media plays in checking power, they wouldn’t be bending the fucking knee like this.”
During a “Morning Joe” segment, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski corrected Galloway when he called Trump a “rapist,” despite a jury only finding Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming former Elle Magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, resulting in an award of $83.3 million in damages. Galloway said that the decision by media companies to avoid confrontation with high-profile figures, even when it involves financial settlements, might be prudent from a business perspective.
“There’s two dimensions to this. The first is from a pure shareholder standpoint. It probably makes sense when the president’s coming after you to say — and you make $20 billion a year in operating profit — to say ‘Yeah, just make it go away. Just give them $25 million to the Presidential Library and make it go away,’” Galloway said after Hoffman discussed Meta’s settlement with Trump.
Meta agreed to pay $25 million on Wednesday to settle a 2021 lawsuit filed by Trump over the suspension of his social media accounts after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, reports indicate. In a related move, Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, contributed $22 million to a fund for Trump’s presidential library. The remaining amount went to legal fees and other plaintiffs, said company spokesperson Andy Stone.
“The problem is—and I wouldn’t expect, based on pattern behavior, Mark Zuckerberg to think anything about this—is that this has real societal implications. And that is des_pite the fact Bob Iger made $45 million last year, I would argue he’s becoming more and more impoverished in terms of his citizenship. And that is when a media company says things that are a fraction of the misinformation, slander, disparaging statements that the president has made himself that happens every day online—and they agree to set a precedent by bending a knee and bowing to this intimidation. It sends a chill across the entire fucking nation.”
Galloway then said there is a practicality to media compliance.
“So, is it a practical thing to do? Yes, you can’t argue with that,” Galloway said. “Bob and Mark—I expected this from Mark. I was disappointed to see it from Bob. Where are the men? Where are the Americans who are going to stand up and say, ‘No, if you’re not guilty, if the entire ecosystem has never been held liable for things much more slanderous or disparaging than these statements, I’ll see you in court.”
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
