The Power of Threats

Don't mess with the press.

   This week will go down in history as the time a president of the United States demanded that a publisher stop publication of a book that the president didn't like.
   In response, the publisher released the book immediately, and crowds lined up at bookstores hours before opening.
  Retailers across the country said their stock sold out within minutes, and the online bookseller Amazon said the book soared to first place on its sales list.
   Moreover, the topic was prime fodder on TV news and talk shows for days, not only in the U.S. but also on news channels around the world.
   Compare this fuss to President Richard Nixon's attempt to stop the New York Times from running its series on the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the government's activities during the Viet Nam War. At the time, the president got a court order suspending further publication at the Times, but the Washington Post immediately took up the task, followed by dozens of other newspapers nationwide, along with coverage on television news shows.
   Coincidentally, the current dispute over a new book critical of Donald Trump is flapping at the same time as a book, a TV documentary and a movie about Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers and the Washington Post's role in exposing the issue are being released.
   In seems the current president's belief in the power of threats is being tested. While this power may have worked for him in the past, this time it's failing. There are more important things at stake here than real estate construction contracts.
   Newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post have faced down such threats before, and they have the resources to do it again.
   In any case, the threat of a libel suit against the author and the publisher of the new book, amounts to prior restraint. You can't file a libel lawsuit against someone for something that has not been published.
   If anything, the threat backfired.
   Bullying threats may have worked for Donald Trump as a real estate developer in the past, but this time he's up against folk with an even bigger resource than he has.
   It's called the Constitution.

   By the way, the book that has the president so wound up is "Fire and Fury. Inside the Trump White House," by Michael Wolff.