Steve,

No, the obvious takeaway from the Trump lawsuits against various media organizations is not to deliberately make editorial judgments with "reckless disregard for the truth" or with "actual malice" that act to defame public figures like Trump or to place them in a false light.

This is standard defamation law.

While the hurdle for a public figure plaintiff like Trump against a media company like CBS or BBC is extremely high under the NY Times v. Sullivan precedent, media companies do not have absolute immunity to defame public figures under U.S. defamation law.

These suits get settled because the media companies in question do not want to turn over discovery materials such as all the many emails and texts and other written materials in which their various employees are saying things (which they think will never be disclosed) about Trump that show obvious malice, bias, and intent to falsely defame him.

The difference between Trump and most other defamation plaintiffs is he has plenty of dough to finance an expensive lawsuit against a huge media company.

They are not used to having someone who can actually take them on in court.

It's the Leftist snobbish pseudo-intellectual arrogance and hubris at work.