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CNN Could Be Forced to Pay Upwards of $1 Billion from Defamation Suit from Tapper Show
The case may not be as well known (yet), but CNN could be facing a defamation liability rivaling or exceeding the $787 million Fox News paid out to Dominion Voting Systems.
newsbusters.org
The case may not be as well known (yet), but CNN could be facing a defamation liability rivaling or exceeding the $787 million Fox News paid out to Dominion Voting Systems. NewsBusters recently reported on Florida’s First District Court of Appeals affirming that plaintiff Zachary Young could seek punitive damages, in addition to economic and emotional damages, from the Cable News Network in a civil trial after they allegedly defamed him regarding his work in getting people out of Afghanistan. The total could near or exceed $1 billion.
For that outcome to be remotely in the cards, Young needed to prove malice and according to the ruling, he’s done exactly that. “Young sufficiently proffered evidence of actual malice, express malice, and a level of conduct outrageous enough to open the door for him to seek punitive damages,” Judge L. Clayton Roberts wrote in the court’s ruling.
The court felt the high bars for actual and expressed malice were met because of internal CNN messages that were extremely vicious toward Young. Correspondent Alex Marquardt, the “primary reporter” expressed in a message to a colleague that he wanted to “nail this Zachary Young mfucker” and thought the story would be Young’s “funeral.” On that declaration of wanting to “nail” Young, CNN editor Matthew Philips responded: “gonna hold you to that cowboy!”
Alongside Marquardt, CNN senior editor Fuzz Hogan, who’s a member of CNN’s internally lauded “Triad” of editorial, legal, and standards/practices oversight personnel, described Young as “a shit.”
In an interview with NewsBusters, Vel Freedman, the lawyer representing Young, said that “everyone makes mistakes” but what CNN’s messages showed was a “systemic problem” inside the network. He added that their internal mechanism for accountability had “clearly failed” and opened themselves to “massive, massive liability.”
Freedman told NewsBusters that his client had lost between $40-60 million in economic opportunity over the course of his now-damaged career as a security contractor since people in the field no longer wanted to work with him. If a jury awarded his client for emotional damages, the upper end could be as high as $600 million. The court recognizing the malice and outrageous conduct by CNN, effectively removed the cap on punitive damages in the State of Florida.
All of that meant CNN could be facing upwards of $1 billion in total damages.
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headlineusa.com
Jake Tapper May Cost CNN $1B in Navy Veteran’s Defamation Lawsuit
'Young sufficiently proffered evidence of actual malice, express malice and a level of conduct outrageous enough to open the door for him to seek punitive damages...'
CNN could be forced to pay up to $1 billion in a defamation lawsuit over a report about a military veteran who decided to help people flee Afghanistan when the Joe Biden regime withdrew from the country in 2021 that aired on anchor Jake Tapper’s show.
The news came right before the network’s presidential debate on June 27, 2024, between Biden and Donald Trump, NewsBusters reported. Tapper is expected to moderate with fellow anchor Dana Bash.
This month, a Florida appellate court affirmed that U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young and his company, Nemex Enterprises Inc., could seek punitive damages for the Afghanistan story. Young said that CNN improperly suggested he was an illegal profiteer.
Vel Freedman, Young’s lawyer, said Young lost $40-60 million in economic opportunity and could get up to $600 million if a jury awards him emotional damages. In the end, CNN could be forced to pay $1 billion to Young, if punitive damages would be included.
According to the lawsuit, CNN destroyed Young’s reputation and business after the network’s correspondent Alex Marquardt published the report about Young. Tapper introduced the segment by telling of a “black market” with demands of “exorbitant fees” and “no guarantee of safety or success,” the news source added.
It was revealed in the internal communications produced in the case that CNN employees called Young, the sole operator profiled in the TV and online report, a “sh**bag” and “a-hole,” adding that they were “going to nail this Zachary Young [motherf***er].”
Additionally, other CNN messages showed the discussions about how the story was “full of holes like Swiss cheese” and Young telling the lying correspondent hours before publication that there were errors in the reporting. Despite that, CNN still went and published the report.
In its appeal, CNN argued that it “did not intend to harm,” that its “language was either opinion or ambiguous,” and that the internal communications were “journalistic bravado that reflected a sincere belief in the reporting.”
Jake Tapper might cost CNN one billion dollars. Why did CNN have so much hatred for what this guy was doing?
