Posted on 01/17/2025 9:52:19 AM PST by george76
A Florida jury found CNN liable for defaming a security consultant featured in a 2021 report on the exorbitant fees being demanded on the black market to evacuate Afghans during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.
The jury also awarded $5 million in damages. CNN also was found liable for punitive damages, with an amount to be determined in the next phase of the trial.
Zachary Young, a Navy veteran, sued the network following a report in 2021, claiming that the segment made it appear as though he was involved in illicit activities.
The jury awarded $4 million in damages related to Young’s loss of earning potential, and another $1 million for pain and suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience and injury to reputation.
A CNN spokesperson declined comment.
The story from Alexander Marquardt was aired on CNN on November 11, 2021, and re-aired three times. Links to the segments also were posted on social media, and a digital article was posted on November 13.
In one instance, Young’s image appeared on screen with the chyron, “Afghans trying to flee Taliban face black markets, exorbitant fees, no guarantee of safety or success.”
Judge William Henry had left it up to the jury to decide whether the use of the term “black market” meant illegal or criminal activity.
...
During the trial, Marquardt defended the piece, as did other CNN staffers who worked on the segment. They said that they never accused Young of any crime, and used his own words in the piece. The term “black market” was not in the story itself, but appeared on the chyron, but Marquardt said that he supported the use of that term as well.
After the piece ran and Young began a legal challenge, CNN aired an apology. In a segment on The Lead with Jake Tapper on March 25, 2022, the anchor told viewers that “the use of the term ‘black market’ in the story was in error. The story included reporting on Zachary Young, a private operator who had been contacted by family members of Afghans trying to flee the country. We didn’t mean to suggest that Mr. Young participated in the black market. We regret the error and to Mr. Young, we apologize.”
But in his closing argument, Young’s attorney, Devin “Velvel” Freedman told jurors that the network’s on air apology “was a lie.”
“Every single CNN employee got up on this stand and told you that they thought ‘black market’ was accurate,” he said. “Each of them paraded a uniform lie that they thought to term ‘black market’ meant an unregulated market. Each of them conveniently told you that they understood the word to mean the opposite of every single dictionary.”
He argued that the story cast Young as an illicit profiteer, when in fact he didn’t take money from Afghans and worked with corporations and non profits to fund evacuations.
Freedman told jurors that the story ruined Young’s career and reputation. “He can’t function anymore, and they did it. You saw him break down on the stand. We talked about the relationship with his wife, his inability to be intimate with her, and in speaking out loud for the first time, that he’s just not the same man that she married.”
No man or woman should have to endure the pain, and certainly not because they want clicks and views.”
But CNN’s attorney, David Axelrod, told jurors they were being instructed to look at the words in context. “It’s the wild, wild west. Some people were taken out and killed. People were using safe houses. People were flying under the radar. People were avoiding the Taliban. You couldn’t just go to the airport. ‘Black market’ was a perfect way to describe that. That’s what it was used for, and that’s the way it was understood.”
He also added, “If the black market was used to talk about the secondary market for Taylor Swift tickets, would anybody say that was criminal?”
Axelrod, who is no relation to the political commentator, said that the report was factual and used Young’s own words, as he asked for $14,500 per evacuee. Axelrod also noted that there was a dearth of evidence to support Young’s claims or lost work and reputation.
Jurors also were shown text messages during the trial give them a glimpse of the newsgathering process. In one, written about 10 days before the story ran, from Marquardt wrote to another CNN staffer, “We gonna nail this Zachary Young mf—er.”
Young’s legal team has tried to make the case that the text and others were evidence of malice, but Axelrod argued that the Marquardt and others involved in reporting the story showed restraint. During the trial, Marquardt said that they found that Young told one woman to “f-off” and told another seeking to get someone out of the country “to run for the border and see how far they get.” But those comments weren’t included in the finished story.
The trial, Axelrod told the jurors, was “about the truth of this case. It’s not about sending a message.”
Winning.
5 million is not enough.
Video of the verdict being read
Jury holds CNN liable for the defamation of
U.S. Navy vet Zachary Young who helped with the Afghanistan evacuation
https://rumble.com/v6aesud-cnn-found-guilty-of-defaming-us-navy-veteran-who-helped-in-afghanistan-evac.html
BTTT
I thought the Florida jury would find damages more than $5 million.
Maybe in the next phase.
In any event CNN has something to think over. I can’t help but wonder if CNN will start referring to itself as “convicted slanderer.”
Punitive damages are coming.
If there was a way to reduce or shutdown so-called Journalism Schools, it would be a start. Journalism Degrees are one of the easiest to skate through, just before or after degrees in Education.
We see it every day with the 2,3,4, even 5 journalists needed to write an article in the WP, NYT, LAT, and others. Even then, the editors can't manage to use proper English grammar.
The journalists on TV are just biased talking heads.
Just $5 million? What about all the NY Yankees souvenirs including the world series rings. Those Georgia mammas weren’t anymore “defamed” that his guy was.
Convicted Defamer! (To the tune of Convicted Felon)
Right now they are deliberating punitive damages.
Hopefully in the billions
Journalism and communication degrees are for people too lazy to read literature to get real English degrees!
SCOTUS has ruled than punitive damages greater in a ratio to actual damages in excess of about 10:1 are u constitutional. Still, $50M would be nice
I helped with a study in 2004 listing all of the individual schools within 300 American University systems, and their applicants' GPAs and test scores and what percent were were National Merit Scholars. As a teacher, I was aghast that the Schools of Education were consistently near the bottom in most categories... but it was the Schools of Journalism that were almost universally in the Bottom 2 on every major and mid-major campus in the US.
I do not know the current numbers, but I would be shocked if that situation has changed at all.
(The tops were most often the Schools of Medicine and Schools of Engineering. Law Schools were further down than I would have expected, overall ranked 8th but often out of the Top Ten. A solid percentage of Schools of Art and Music were higher than their Schools of Law.)
Only 5 million?
How much was Trump and Giuliani hit up for again?
Nothing like waiting 'til Veteran's Day to trash a veteran.
Was Peter Arnett not available to do a hard-hitting story regarding our use of nerve gas in Afghanistan?
When CNN first aired many years ago they were pretty good but slightly left of center. Over the years they metamorphosed into a leftist political attack machine and their viewership declined slowly and since the last election has dropped precipitously. As a commercial profit making enterprise they are DEAD MEAT.
They are pretty good today covering breaking events if it is not political. If political it becomes just more leftist screed. The Israel Hamas conflict is a good example. These were breaking events but always covered with a slant to Hamas. They would quote Hamas about deaths and hospitals that were actually a combined hospital and terrorist hideout. They did not put it into context of the fact that Hamas uses hospitals and schools, and Mosques as terrorist bases now and in the past many years. Has Israel killed innocents? Yes they have, but because the close proximity of terrorist that used them as shields and political fodder by design. Without context it is no longer breaking news but is breaking propaganda.
When CNN finally folds I would gleefully pee on their grave, but I do not like standing in line for hours if not days.
The schools of Pure and Applied Sciences, Medical and Health Care, and just about anything that requires a lot of chemistry, math, physics and bio-sciences are for students that want a real education and have their heads screwed on straight such as doctors, pharmacists, nurses, geologists, chemists, engineers, aviation, biologists, mathematicians, etc. I have three of the above and commerce paid me well for my acquired skills. I earned the skills and commerce paid me for these skills.
The USA is a magnificent nation that allows anyone to succeed if you will apply yourself. The first time I had a job that social security was deducted was cutting cane in South Louisiana at 16 after classes in High School. Next job was deckhand in the summer. At 18 I could work on the drilling rigs in the summers while in University. I was making what a pharmacist was paid back then. My skills were not that of a pharmacist I later became. They paid me that wage because it was hard work, dangerous work and away from home for long periods offshore.
Our nation will provide for those willing to work and study.
Philosophy should be an extremely rigorous and hard major but it is no longer. It has been corrupted and now is just a indoctrination of thought.
FWIW, when I was getting my computer science degree from my college’s math school, a lot of my classmates who decided that CS was too tough chose to go to the education school for an easier degree.
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