PRETTY PENNY

CNN Ordered to Pay Millions After Losing Defamation Trial

The network will have $5 million to a security contractor who claimed its reporting “ruined his professional reputation.”

CNN will have to fork over at least $5 million to a U.S. Navy veteran after it lost a defamation trial in Florida on Friday.

A Panama City, Florida, jury ruled that CNN had defamed security contractor Zachary Young when it aired a 2021 report that said he was part of a “black market” that price-gouged those attempting to flee Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrew from the country.

CNN’s lawyers—and many of its employees—argued it viewed the term as “unregulated” markets, not criminal ones, according to The Washington Post.

The six-person jury awarded $5 million to Young, who claimed the Nov. 2021 CNN report ruined his professional reputation.

The jury also awarded Young punitive damages. CNN subsequently reached a settlement with Young, the trial’s judge confirmed Friday afternoon, averting further legal proceedings to determine the extent of these damages.

In a statement shared with the Daily Beast, a CNN spokesperson said, “we remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case.”

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Young’s attorneys had told the jury the case could allow them to “send a message” to media companies over such reports, claiming they had “the opportunity to move the pendulum back toward sanity in our media.”

CNN’s lawyers argued the stories on the withdrawal were carefully vetted by multiple employees, who had also sought comment from Young.

“Neither story accused Mr. Young of doing anything illegal,” CNN attorney David L. Axelrod said. He is not related to CNN political commentator David Axelrod.

The two-week trial in the heavily conservative Florida city saw many CNN employees—including chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, who produced the story—testify they did not intend to damage Young’s reputation and found the final report to be accurate.

After Young’s attorneys complained to the network about the report at the time, CNN aired an apology to him and retracted the report. But network executives told Young’s attorneys they didn’t feel the correction was necessary.

It is unclear whether the defamation case could test the “actual malice” standard that gives news outlets leeway to make mistakes in the course of reporting, particularly if the network appeals the ruling. But the case follows a series of litigation efforts against national media outlets, many of which were brought by President-elect Donald Trump and risked testing—and imperiling—the standard.

Trump sued ABC News for defamation last year, arguing anchor George Stephanopoulos misled viewers when he claimed Trump was found “liable for rape” during an episode of This Week.

ABC News and Stephanopoulos defended the segment for months last year before it ultimately settled with Trump for $15 million in December.

Trump has also sued CBS News and the Des Moines Register for reports he claimed were laced with bias, and he vowed last month to continue his spree of defamation lawsuits to combat media bias—regardless of whether the reports were accurate.

“I feel I have to do this,” he said at a news conference last month. “It costs a lot of money to do it but we have to straighten out the press.”

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Corbin BoliesMedia Reporter

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