A social media post shared by Stephen King regarding media attention on Taylor Swift instead of Donald Trump over the weekend has gone viral.
On Friday, a New York City jury ordered that former President Trump must pay $83.3 million in damages to journalist E. Jean Carroll for statements made in 2019; he said she was lying about allegations that he sexually assaulted her inside a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
That amount includes $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million for reputational repair, and $65 million in punitive damages.
Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages last year in another civil defamation trial stemming from a denial he made about her claims in 2022. He has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal the verdict.
On the same day that the verdict was handed down, pop star Swift was the focus of heightened news coverage in the wake of sexually explicit artificial intelligence (AI) images portraying her that were shared across social media.
AI images are pictures generated through artificial intelligence software using a text prompt. This can be done without a person's consent. Among the AI images of Swift being shared are some that depict her posing inappropriately while at a Kansas City Chiefs game. The musician has attended several of the NFL team's games this season amid her romance with Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce.
Soon after the degrading images were removed from X, formerly Twitter, it was reported that Swift is mulling legal action. Newsweek has reached out to a representative of Swift via email for comment.
With Trump and Swift's woes generating headlines at the end of last week, author King suggested on Friday that one network had opted to cover one over the other.
"Trump ordered to pay $83.3 million, and what is Fox News talking about? Taylor Swift, of course," wrote King, who is a frequent critic of Trump.
Trump ordered to pay $83.3 million, and what is Fox News talking about? Taylor Swift, of course.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 26, 2024
The post, which drew comments both supporting and mocking Trump, has received more than 1.2 million views as of press time.
When contacted by Newsweek, a Fox News representative shared multiple examples of the network's coverage of the Trump verdict, including Neil Cavuto's live coverage as the news broke and Bret Baier's discussion of the matter on Special Report.
GOP frontrunner Trump is also expecting a verdict this week in his civil-fraud trial.
In September, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a partial summary judgment in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Trump and top executives at The Trump Organization committed fraud. Engoron held that Trump grossly inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers.
He will now rule on how much the Republican will pay in damages, as well as rule on six other accusations—including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy claims. James is seeking the return of $370 million in profits Trump made.
While the state of Trump's finances is not publicly known, in a deposition last year, Trump described his stockpile of cash as being "substantially in excess" of $400 million. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index placed his liquid assets at about $600 million and said he has a net worth of $3.1 billion. This is mostly tied up in real estate, including office and residential buildings in Manhattan, golf courses and the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Meanwhile, the Swift AI photo scandal could well bring about major change, with two lawmakers on Tuesday reintroducing a bill that would make the non-consensual sharing of digitally altered pornographic images a federal crime.
Representative Joseph Morelle, a Democrat from New York, first authored the "Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act" in May 2023, which he said at the time was created "to protect the right to privacy online amid a rise of artificial intelligence and digitally-manipulated content." He has since added Representative Tom Kean, a Republican from New Jersey, as a co-sponsor.
Discussing moves to make images such as the ones depicting Swift illegal, Morelle last week told Newsweek that the AI creations were part of a wider trend.
"Intimate deepfake images like those targeting Taylor Swift are disturbing, and sadly, they're becoming more and more pervasive across the internet. I'm appalled this type of sexual exploitation isn't a federal crime—which is why I introduced legislation to finally make it one," Morelle said.
"The images may be fake, but their impacts are very real. Deepfakes are happening every day to women everywhere in our increasingly digital world, and it's time to put a stop to them. My legislation would be a critical step forward in regulating AI and ensuring there are consequences for those who create deepfake images."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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