A Florida jury found on Friday that CNN defamed a US Navy veteran in a 2021 story about people being paid to rescue endangered Afghans. Taliban occupation Of that country.
This was an unusual verdict against a media outlet in a defamation case. Defamation laws are generally protective of news organizations, and plaintiffs must meet a high standard to prove defamation.
A jury in Panama City, Florida, deliberated for more than eight hours Thursday before returning a verdict in favor of Zachary Young, who pleaded guilty by showing his face in a story on CNN about the “black market” of trafficking desperate Afghans. Was accused of destroying his business. For higher fees.
The jury awarded Young $5 million in damages. An undisclosed settlement was reached Friday regarding punitive damages, according to the judge overseeing the case. Details of that agreement were not immediately available.
Young had argued that his business targeted sponsors who could pay to escort Afghans, not individual Afghans, charging more than $10,000 for the service. While CNN said it was incorrect to use the phrase “black market”, it argued that its reporting on Young was accurate.
CNN told The Associated Press it would not comment on the decision. But it sent a statement to the website Mediaite, saying: “We are proud of our journalists and we are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, although we will certainly take whatever useful lessons we can from this case.” He will take it.
In a trial set in a conservative part of the country, Young's lawyers urged jurors to send a message to the media. Questions posed to jurors during the trial expressed some hostility, with one wondering whether CNN had assumed the plaintiffs were guilty until proven innocent.
Private messages also became part of the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs showing internal messages where CNN reporter Alex Marquardt said some profane and unpleasant things about Young. Marquardt testified at the trial that his story “was not a hit piece.”
Marquardt's story first aired during Jake Tapper's CNN broadcast on November 11, 2021, and later printed stories were used on the network's website.
defamation case are actually rare in the United States, as strong constitutional protections for the press make it difficult to prove defamation. From a media perspective, taking a case to a judge or jury is a risk that many officers do not want to take.
Instead of defending statements made by George Stephanopoulos about Trump last spring, ABC News agreed last month The former president must pay $15 million to settle his defamation suit against his presidential library. Ultimately, ABC's parent company, the Walt Disney Company, concluded that the ongoing battle against Trump was not worth winning or losing.
In another case, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787 million on the day the trial begins in 2023 to settle the company's claims of inaccurate reporting in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
Along with the verdict, lawyers were hearing testimony during the punitive damages phase of the trial about CNN's overall financial health.
editor's Note: This story and headline have been updated to correct details of the decision.