Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with Trump's war on the media following yesterday's press conference

where he took aim at CBS, Bob Woodward, and the Des Moines Register,

which he just sued today after getting ABC to preemptively capitulate

and hand over $15 million to him.

All because George Stepanopoulos used the word rape instead of

sexual assault, in referring to a New York verdict in which the judge said of Trump's guilt,

quote, the finding Ms. Carroll failed to prove she was raped within the meaning of the New York

penal law does not mean she failed to

prove Mr. Trump raped her as many people commonly understand the word rape. Indeed, as the

evidence at trial makes clear, the jury found Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that. Joining us is

Paul Waldman, a journalist and opinion writer who is a former columnist

at the Washington Post, whose books include being right as not enough, what progressives

must learn from conservative success, the press effect, politicians, journalists, and the

stories that shape the political world, and most recently white rural rage,

the threat to American democracy.

He runs the cross-section on Substack, where his latest article we will discuss is

Trump's new strategy to terrorize the media and punish dissent.

Then, with the latest of 323 shootings this year at elementary and secondary schools,

involving a 15-year-old girl who killed two and wounded six,

then took her own life.

We will speak with Jonathan Metzell, Professor Sociology and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University,

...