by WorldTribune Staff, January 8, 2020
CNN on Tuesday agreed to settle a lawsuit with Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, according to a report by Cincinnati’s Fox19.
The amount of the settlement was not made public during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Covington, Kentucky, the report said.
Sandmann was the target of vicious attacks from leftist media outlets after a video was posted on social media in January 2019 of the MAGA hat-wearing student smiling at Nathan Phillips beating a drum and singing a chant as Sandmann’s peers stoodon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Related: Sandmann decision: An outrageous judicial win for false and malicious journalism, July 31, 2019
A longer version of the video revealed that Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong — “but not until the media had played judge, jury and executioner of Sandmann’s reputation,” Zero Hedge pointed out.
That included CNN’s Reza Aslan, who tweeted: “Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s?”
Sandmann’s lawsuit sought $800 million from CNN, The Washington Post and NBC Universal.
Trial dates are still not set for Sandmann’s lawsuit against NBC Universal and the Washington Post. A federal judge let a portion of the suit go forward after the Post filed a motion to dismiss it.
In a 2019 interview with Fox News, Sandmann’s lawyer Lin Wood described CNN’s role in smearing Sandmann:
Lawyers Lin Wood and Todd McMurty — demanded justice to the tune of $275 million through the U.S. District Court in Kentucky’s Eastern District.
“CNN was probably more vicious in its direct attacks on Nicholas than The Washington Post. And CNN goes into millions of individuals’ homes. CNN couldn’t resist the idea that here’s a guy with a young boy, that Make America Great Again cap on. So they go after him.”
RedState’s Jeff Charles noted:
These supposed junior KKK members, sporting MAGA hats, were filmed viciously berating and mocking Nathan Phillips, a Vietnam veteran who just wanted to play his drum. In fact, Phillips told The Washington Post that the Nazis-in-Training “wouldn’t allow him to retreat.”
The full video was released by the Black Hebrew Israelites who were actually responsible for starting the altercation in the first place. Only a few days later, the nation knew that it was Phillips who approached the kids while the Black Hebrew Israelites hurled racial and homophobic slurs at them.
Wood said that “if you took the time to look at the full context of what happened that day, Nicholas Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong. He was, as I’ve said to others, he was the only adult in the room.”
Another of Sandmann’s attorneys, Todd McMurtry, told Fox News:
“Well, we’ve talked about the impact on Nicholas Sandmann a number of times and it — it is significant. Nicholas Sandmann was a 16-year-old man who had a perfect reputation. He was loved by his parents, respected at his school, and had many good friends at Covington Catholic High School. So he was a person that was doing very well in life and due to his strong character, he still is. But nevertheless, his character has now been determined by the lies issued by CNN. So the facts were not first, the lies were.”
McMurtry told Fox News that lawsuits against “as many as 13 other defendants will be filed in 30 to 40 days.”
Among them: ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, Slate, The Hill, and Gannett which owns the Cincinnati Inquirer, as well as miscellaneous other small outfits, according to McMurtry.
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CNN settles with Covington Catholic student; Cases against other media continue added by World Tribune on
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