(Headline USA) A Florida jury on Friday found that CNN defamed a U.S. Navy veteran in a 2021 story about people paid to rescue endangered Afghans following the Taliban takeover of that country.
The rare ruling against a media outlet in a defamation case reflected the egregious circumstances of the case. Libel laws are generally protective of news organizations, and plaintiffs must meet a high standard to prove defamation.
Generally, the burden falls on the accuser not only to prove the falsity of the statement, but also to show willful negligence—or in the case of public figures, malicious intent. They must also demonstrate that the statements caused material damages.
The jury in Panama City, Florida, deliberated for more than eight hours starting Thursday before ruling in favor of Zachary Young, who blamed CNN for destroying his business by showing his face onscreen in a story about a “black market” of smuggling out desperate Afghans for high fees.
The jury awarded Young $5 million in compensatory damages. An undisclosed settlement was reached later Friday regarding punitive damages, according to the judge overseeing the case. Details of that settlement were not immediately available.
Young had argued that his business targeted sponsors who could afford to pay for Afghans to get out, not individual Afghans charged as much as $10,000 for the service. While CNN said it was wrong to use the phrase “black market,” it contended that its reporting on Young was accurate.
CNN said it would have no comment on the verdict.
Young’s lawyers urged jurors to send a message to the media. Questions submitted by jurors during the trial telegraphed some hostility, with one wondering whether CNN had treated the plaintiff as guilty until proven innocent.
Private messages also became part of the trial, with plaintiffs showing internal messages where CNN’s reporter, Alex Marquardt, said some profane and unflattering things about Young. Marquardt testified in the trial that his story “was not a hit piece.”
Marquardt’s story first aired on Nov. 11, 2021, during Jake Tapper’s CNN broadcast, and subsequent printed stories were used on the network’s website.
Defamation trials are actually rare in the United States, in part because the strong constitutional protections for the press make proving libel difficult. From the media’s standpoint, taking a case to a judge or jury is a risk many executives don’t want to take.
Rather than defend statements that George Stephanopoulos made about Trump last spring, ABC News last month agreed to make the former president’s libel lawsuit go away by paying him $15 million toward his presidential library.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
