Some follow-up... Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others https://lawandcrime.com/high-profil...tion-lawsuits-against-cbs-abc-nyt-and-others/ After years of politically charged litigation, former Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann has lost a round of high-profile defamation lawsuits against five mainstream media companies at the summary judgment stage. That’s according to court dockets and an opinion and order signed by a federal judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky on Tuesday. Sandmann’s cases against ABC News, Rolling Stone magazine, CBS News, newspaper and television station owner Gannett, and The New York Times are now officially listed as “terminated” on the court record. Sandmann sued the five organizations in question — and a few others, including CNN and NBC — on March 2, 2020. The lawsuits alleged that various articles and broadcasts defamed Sandmann by characterizing his actions toward Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, on Jan. 18, 2019 in Washington, D.C., as nefarious. From Sandmann’s original lawsuit against ABC: ABC’s reporting conveyed the false and defamatory charges that Nicholas “stood in [Phillips’] way,” “blocked [Phillips’] way and wouldn’t allow [Phillips] to retreat,” and that Nicholas “wouldn’t let [Phillips’] move,” while a mass of other young white boys “swarm[ed],” taunted, jeered and physically intimidated Phillips. ABC’s reporting conveyed, among other things, the false and defamatory gist that Nicholas was the face of an unruly hate mob of hundreds of white, racist high school students who physically assaulted and harassed Native Americans who were engaged in peaceful demonstrations, song and prayer at the National Mall. [ . . . ] ABC accused Nicholas of behavior constituting menacing racial intimidation of Phillips, a Native American political activist, while Phillips was purportedly engaged in peaceful song and prayer at the Lincoln Memorial. Sandmann’s ABC lawsuit characterized the “truth” of the matter as follows: ABC’s accusations against Nicholas are totally, provably, and unequivocally false. The truth is that, after the Indigenous Peoples March was over, Phillips approached Nicholas and the other students from afar, bypassed wide open steps to his alleged destination of the Lincoln Memorial, specifically confronted Nicholas, and never attempted to move past, around, or away from Nicholas, as Nicholas stood quietly for several minutes in a “Make America Great Again” hat while Phillips beat a drum and sang loudly within inches of Nicholas’ face. The truth is that, at the time of the confrontation by Phillips, Nicholas and his classmates from Covington Catholic High School (the “CovCath students”) were assembled on the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial at the direction of their chaperones for buses that would take them home to Northern Kentucky. The truth is that, Nicholas and his CovCath classmates were bullied, attacked, and confronted with racist and homophobic slurs and threats of violence by the Black Hebrew Israelites, a recognized hate group, before being unexpectedly confronted without explanation by Phillips, an activist, who proceeded to target Nicholas while chanting and beating a drum inches from his face and being flanked by activist companions filming the event in the hopes of capturing a viral sensation that would be used to advance, via social media, an ulterior political agenda. Phillips specifically targeted Nicholas and placed himself directly in front of Nicholas. All parties moved for various forms of summary judgment, and a judge agreed to dismiss the cases by agreeing with the five media defendants and disagreeing with Sandmann’s attorneys. Senior U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman, a Jimmy Carter appointee, explained the procedural machinations afoot: The cases are now before the Court on motions filed in all five pending cases: plaintiff’s motions for partial summary judgment on the issue of falsity; defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment; defendants’ supplemental memoranda in support of summary judgment; and defendants’ motions to strike. Summary judgment is a procedural mechanism which resolves cases without a trial. Bertelsman noted that CNN “filed an early motion to dismiss which the Court granted” on July 26, 2019. “In that opinion, the Court held that none of the statements were actionable for various reasons: some were not ‘about’ Sandmann; some were statements of opinion; and/or some were not subject to a defamatory meaning,” Bertelsman recalled. In other words, the case more or less flatlined once before. Sandmann filed a motion to reconsider; the judge agreed to resuscitate the matter on “narrow” grounds. At issue in the resurrected case were “Phillips’s statements that Sandmann had ‘blocked’ Phillips and ‘would not allow him to retreat,'” the judge wrote. “[J]ustice required that discovery be conducted as to the context of those statements,” the judge recalled. CNN settled with Sandmann in January 2020; NBC settled in December 2021. Those settlements left the five remaining aforementioned defendants; what followed was a round of discovery as to the five remaining cases. Bertelsman noted that “the only evidence filed in the record consists of: (1) Sandmann’s deposition; (2) a declaration under oath by Phillips; (3) seven declarations under oath by persons in attendance at the incident; and (4) a collection of video recordings taken at the National Mall that day.” (Much more at above url)
CNN and NBC feeling stupid right now... settling with the kid when the others got the suits dismissed haha
Typically large news organizations view these type of suits as a cost of doing business. Usually they settle them for 6 figures or under --- just to make the "nuisance" go away and avoid protracted legal fees. I am surprised these news organizations did not settle like the Washington Post and others.
they knew the kid was going after each one for.money and decided to hold firm and were vindicated in court.