“D__onald J. Trump__ is a libel bully. Like most bullies, he's also a loser, to borrow from Trump's vocabulary.”

That's the opening of “Donald J. Trump Is A Libel Bully But Also A Libel Loser,” an analysis of seven different lawsuits he's filed, by Susan Seager, a media law specialist at the University of Southern California. (Media Law Resource Center)

“Trump and his companies have been involved in a mind-boggling 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years and sent countless threatening cease-and-desist letters to journalists and critics.” Neither he nor his companies have won a speech-related case, something to be recalled as he threatens The New York Times and several women who have accused him of sexual assault.

In the cases whose records she dissects, there were four dismissals on the merits, two voluntary withdrawals, and one Trump arbitration win by default. Perfect example of his frivolous ways: suing HBO comedian-host Bill Maher “for suckering Trump into sending his birth certificate to prove he was not the 'spawn' of an orangutan.” Trump filed a $5-million breach-of-contract lawsuit since Maher said he'd donate $5 million to charity if Trump could prove it, only to then withdraw the suit after it was quickly ridiculed.

Long before was his suit against my late former Chicago Tribune colleague, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Gapp. Gapp wrote that a proposed 150-story, nearly 2,000-foot high Trump office tower in Manhattan was “one of the silliest things anyone could inflict on New York or any other city,” later telling The Wall Street Journal it was “aesthetically lousy” and that Chicago itself “has already been loused up by giant-ism.”

Trump said the story and an artist's conception of the building “torpedoed his plans.” A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit and derided Trump.

But Seager concedes that journalists and whistleblowers can be forced to expend lots of time, energy and money. The Tribune spent $60,000 defending Gapp (and that was 30 years ago).

Amid facile derision of Trump's threats, it's a reminder of how he may just want to be a pain in the neck, a reflex that comes naturally. And, as John Oliver put it Sunday night on his HBO show, the guy is “pathologically unable” and “medically incapable” to ever concede he's a loser.

The final debate totals

The three presidential debates and the vice presidential face-off lured a total of 259 million viewers, says Nielsen. “The 1992 debate cycle held the previous record, as a total of 250 million viewers tuned into the three George H. W. Bush–Bill Clinton–Ross Perot debates, and the Dan Quayle–Al Gore–James Stockdale vice presidential debate.” (Adweek)

Unmentioned point of information: The U.S. population was 256 million back then. It's about 320 million now. So, reporters, don't start heralding some revived civic engagement.

__ Bee on the press__

On Samantha Bee’s TBS show last night she singled out several news hosts, including Bret Baier of Fox and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow for being among the many who gave Trump fairly decent grades for first 25 to 30 minutes of the last debate (I agreed with them).

“Only kindergarteners get credit for using their inside voices. Our media are so punch drunk from the 16-month Hindenburg explosion of trump's candidacy, they no longer notice how awful he is unless he...grabs the foundational principles of our country by the pussy.”

Millennial doubts about AT&T deal

“What are they going to do that's special?” said a dubious Jon Steinberg, founder of Cheddar, as he interviewed Wall Street Journal reporter Ryan Knutson about the proposed AT&T-Time Warner deal. Said Knutson, “at the end of the day people think it's just about buying a stream of revenue that can help AT&T cover its dividend and help it diversify” amid the wireless industry's concentration in just a few hands. (Cheddar)