CNN Loses Defamation Suit

Source: Patriot Post | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>

Back in 2021, during the Biden administration’s disastrous Afghanistan exit, U.S. Navy veteran Zachery Young was a security and intelligence consultant who was hired by a number of nonprofit organizations to help save as many Afghans as possible as the Taliban was quickly taking over the country.

Young’s services cost money, but it was not Afghans who were footing the bills. It was nonprofits and corporations such as Bloomberg and Audible.

At the time, CNN elected to run with a story claiming that desperate Afghans were being exploited by greedy profiteers. CNN ran the following headline: “Afghans trying to flee Taliban face black markets, exorbitant fees, no guarantee of safety or success.”

In order to back up its claim, CNN highlighted Young, falsely framing him as profiteering from desperate Afghans.

CNN’s segment featured Jake Tapper and reporter Alex Marquardt. In his reporting, Marquardt pointed to Young with an image of him on the screen stating that he was asking $75,000 to transport a vehicle out to Pakistan and $14,500 per person to the Unite Arab Emirates. Marquardt observed that those were “prices well beyond the reach of most Afghans.”

Marquardt explained that he had tried to call Young without success, but was able to text message him. He then pointed to a number of text messages he exchanged, framing them as evidence of Young’s supposed exploitation of Afghans.

Young sued CNN for defamation. During the trial, he argued that CNN’s false reporting negatively impacted not only his business but also his marriage and reputation. Young noted that CNN failed to report that he had also rescued at least 22 women from Afghanistan.

During the trial, it was made clear that Young “did not act illegally or criminally.” Young’s lawyer, Vel Freedman, argued, “It was a calculated attack by CNN on his character that has inflicted deep and lasting wounds.” This reality was exposed in a text message from Marquardt sent to a colleague wherein he wrote, “we’re gonna nail this Zachary Young mf***er.”

In a big blow to CNN, the jury ruled in Young’s favor. The jury has awarded Young $4 million in lost earnings and $1 million in damages.

More than the monetary blow to CNN is the reputational blow. CNN has been bleeding viewership for the last several years. In just the last two years, the Leftmedia outlet’s net worth has diminished by over half, from $4.4 billion in 2021 down to $2.3 billion at the end of 2023. Since the election, CNN’s average viewership is down to just 367,000.

This is what happens when a news company elevates promoting a political narrative over and against reporting the truth. If CNN wants to earn back Americans’ trust, it must do its best to drop its leftist bias and really lean into just reporting the hard news. Furthermore, CNN must adopt the position of trusting the American people to be discerning enough to come to their own conclusions.

Until and unless those changes come, Judge William Henry spoke for all of us in the trial when he told CNN’s legal counsel, “Your credibility with me … is about none.”