CNN Agrees To Pay Out Settlement to Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann
CNN settled out of court this week in a longstanding lawsuit from Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann.
According to WXIX-TV, the size of the settlement was not publicly disclosed at the hearing Tuesday in Kentucky’s federal courthouse in Covington.
Sandmann had sued CNN, and similar left-wing establishment news outlets The Washington Post and NBC Universal, for defamation last year in light of dangerously selective reports surrounding a politically controversial incident involving the teen.
The three lawsuits sought a combined $800 million total, the outlet reported.
Nicholas Sandmann appeared on NBC’s Today Show to respond after a viral video showed a tense situation at the Lincoln Memorial. This timeline details how the events unfolded. https://t.co/IzA3lFCpXo pic.twitter.com/IC5rOwtqPA
— USA TODAY Video (@usatodayvideo) January 23, 2019
L. Lin Wood, P.C., the law firm representing Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, released this video today slamming the media for their lies about Sandmann. pic.twitter.com/DlTpQH7jBr
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 13, 2019
Sandmann earned nationwide media attention, and the ire of numerous left-wing political activists, in January 2019 when video of the teen wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and smugly grinning at a Native American protester in Washington, D.C., went viral.
The Covington Catholic student and his peers had been in the city for the annual pro-life March for Life and were reportedly gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial to wait for their school bus when Indigenous People’s March demonstrators and radical Black Hebrew Israelites descended upon them, verbally accosting the conservative youths.
Establishment media outlets quickly ran with selectively edited versions of the video, withholding minutes of introductory context and details from their reports and leaving American audiences to believe Sandmann and his peers had initiated the standoff.
“Attorney for the damned” L. Lin Wood, who specializes in libel and slander law, would eventually step up to represent Sandmann in the prominent lawsuits that followed shortly thereafter, according to WCPO-TV.
All three of the sued outlets did motion last spring and summer for federal Judge William Bertelsman to dismiss their respective cases.
After much deliberation, and one decision in NBC Universal’s favor, Bertelsman did eventually allow for all three suits to proceed in some capacity.
A judge rules Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann’s lawsuit against NBCUniversal can proceed. pic.twitter.com/Z0o6mCfBfv
— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) November 22, 2019
Lawsuits lodged against The Washington Post and NBC Universal are still pending, though trial dates are yet to be set.
Another suit, which will reportedly target Gannett media company, owners of The Cincinnati Enquirer, is also intended to be brought within the next 60 days.
Monetary compensation for the “emotional distress Nicholas and his family suffered” is not, however, the primary motivator behind the slew of suits, according to Sandmann’s attorney.
Instead, Wood told WXIX, the family and its legal team are on a mission to “deter the defendants” from engaging in similar reporting in the future.
The Western Journal has reached out to CNN for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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