'SEND A MESSAGE'

CNN Jury Foreperson: We Wanted to Make CNN Pay Up to $100M

The network ultimately settled with a security contractor who it claimed was part of a “black market” operation.

The jury foreperson in the Florida trial that found CNN liable for defamation last month said she wanted to force CNN to pay up to $100 million in punitive damages to punish them for “fake news.” Katy Svitenko told Variety in an email the Panama City jury wanted to send the network a message over its November 2021 report that claimed a security contractor evacuating people from Afghanistan was part of a “black market” operation. The network ultimately settled with the contractor after being ordered to pay $5 million in damages but before the jury could deliberate punitive damages. “The message the jury wanted to send was to not only CNN but to all media that the general public is fed up with fake news and partial truths,” Svitenko told the magazine. “Reporting must be unbiased, true, and complete.” She also said the jury found CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt, who reported the story, “extremely arrogant” when he took the stand to defend his reporting. CNN, which did not respond to an immediate request for comment, said it remained proud of its journalists and stood by fair reporting, though would “of course take what useful lessons we can from this case.”