President Donald Trump is expressing dissatisfaction with George Clooney following the actor’s comments on the ‘fake news’ narrative, which Trump has been known to promote.
George Clooney, who is 63 years old, has consistently supported the Democratic party. In July of the previous year, he penned an 870-word op-ed for The New York Times. In this piece, he identified himself as a ‘lifelong Democrat’ and suggested that then-President Joe Biden should consider not running for a second term, arguing that this would give the Democratic Party a stronger chance against Trump.
However, this scenario did not unfold as Biden’s replacement, Kamala Harris, who was vice-president at the time, lost to the 78-year-old Trump in the elections.
Recently, Clooney discussed his Broadway debut “Good Night, and Good Luck” with CBS’ 60 Minutes and spoke about potential challenges for the media under Trump’s leadership.
“We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations to make journalists smaller,” Clooney explained to the news station.
“Governments don’t like the freedom of the press they never have and that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on they don’t like the press.”
Clooney mentioned Trump’s previous lawsuits against media organizations, including ABC News. This particular outlet agreed to pay Trump $15 million in a defamation case after ABC’s news anchor, George Stephanopoulos, falsely claimed in an interview that Trump had been found ‘liable for rape,’ as reported by the BBC.
Additionally, Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, accusing 60 Minutes of ‘election and voter interference’ for allegedly editing an interview with Harris to portray him negatively.
In their defense, CBS stated that the plaintiffs were attempting to penalize a news organization for its constitutionally protected editorial decisions that they disliked. CBS also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, while Paramount, the owner of CBS, was seeking to finalize a merger deal that required approval from the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
In response to the 60-minute feature on Clooney, Trump expressed his criticism on Truth Social, posting: “Why would the now highly discredited 60 Minutes be doing a total ‘puff piece’ on George Clooney, a second rate movie ‘star,’ and failed political pundit.”
“He fought hard for Sleepy Joe’s election and then, right after the Debate, dumped him like a dog.
“Later, I assume under orders from the Obama camp, pushed all out for ‘Kamala,’ only to soon realize that that was not going to work out to well.
“60 Minutes even fraudulently inserted Fake answers into her disastrous interview, aired just before Election Day, in one of the most embarrassing and dishonest events in broadcast history… And now George Clooney again? His press agent should be making a fortune!!!”
Clooney’s Broadway production is an adaptation of his 2005 drama of the same name. The story focuses on how Senator Joseph McCarthy sensationalized the threat of communism and attempted to instill fear in the public, but was ultimately exposed by pioneering reporter Edward R. Murrow.
In his interview with 60 Minutes, Clooney compared the events in the play to current circumstances, stating: “Here’s where I would tell you where we differ from what Murrow was doing, although McCarthy would try to pose things that he’d show up a blank piece of paper and say I’ve got a list of names, okay so it was that was his version of fake news.”
“We now are at a place where we found that it’s harder, and harder, and harder to discern the truth – facts are now negotiated.”