Ordinarily when I write about libel suits, it’s to call your attention to some bad actor whose ridiculous claims threaten to damage freedom of the press. Today, though, I want to tell you about a case involving CNN that has me wondering what on earth executives at the news channel could be thinking.
Media reporter David Folkenflik of NPR explains the case in some detail. In November 2021, CNN’s Alex Marquardt reported that Zachary Young, who runs an outfit called Nemex Enterprises, was taking advantage of desperate Afghans by charging them “exorbitant fees” to extract them from Afghanistan after the U.S. pulled out and the government fell into the hands of the Taliban.
CNN said there was no evidence that Young had been successful in evacuating anyone. Young claims otherwise. Folkenflik writes:
Young has sued CNN for defamation. In his complaint, his attorneys say CNN gave him just hours to respond to its questions before it first aired that story on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” They say Young had, in fact, successfully evacuated dozens of people from Afghanistan.
In rebutting those allegations in court, CNN has since cast doubt on Young’s claim of the successful evacuations. Behind the scenes, however, some editors expressed qualms about the reporting, court filings show.
You should read Folkenflik’s full story. What you’ll learn is that:
- CNN may or may not have gotten it right, but it is basing its defense, in part, on what it describes as Young’s refusal “to cooperate with CNN’s reporting efforts,” as if he was under any legal obligation to do so. Also, keep in mind that Young argues he was given “just hours to respond.”
- Tom Lumley, CNN’s senior national security editor, privately called the story “a mess.” Megan Trimble, a top editor, agreed that “it’s messy.”
- There was some sentiment within CNN that it was all right to go ahead with a fleeting television version of the story that wouldn’t attract much notice but that posting a written article was risky.
- Marquardt, in an internal message, had written, “We gonna nail this Zachary Young mf*****,” and at least two other CNN journalists had disparaged Young besides, with one saying Young had “a punchable face.”
Now, truth is an absolute defense in a libel case, so if it turns out that CNN got it right, then it should prevail. Perhaps that’s why it’s taking the aggressive stance of moving ahead with a trial rather than settling with Young out of court. But as Folkenflik reports, the pretrial discovery documents that CNN was compelled to produce show that some people within CNN harbored misgivings about the story or at least some elements of it.
If Young is able to show that CNN reported falsehoods about him, he’ll also have to prove that it did so with some degree of fault. As Folkenflik writes, the judge in the case has ruled that Young is not a public figure, which means that Young need only convince a jury that CNN’s reporting was negligent, which is a fairly low bar. The insulting comments made about Young by Marquardt and his colleagues will no doubt be used to bolster any claim that CNN failed to cross every “t” and dot every “i.”
“I always dread any kind of libel cases because the likelihood that something bad will come out of it is very high,” First Amendment expert Jane Kirtley told Associated Press media reporter David Bauder. “This is not a great time to be a libel defendant if you’re in the news media. If we ever did have the support of the public, it has seriously eroded over the past few years.”
Indeed. And unlike Disney’s recent outrageous decision to settle a libel suit brought against ABC News by Donald Trump for $16 million even though it could have argued that anchor George Stephanopoulos’ on-air claim that Trump had been been found civilly responsible for “rape” was substantially true (in fact it was “sexual abuse,” which a federal judge said amounted to the same thing), in this case it’s a news organization that is risking an adverse libel ruling by going to trial in Florida, where Young’s company is based.
Unless CNN is prepared to produce more evidence that its reporting is accurate and truthful than it has so far, it ought to settle.
Billionaires bad and good
Veteran editor Norman Pearlstine, who was the first executive editor Patrick Soon-Shiong hired after he purchased the Los Angeles Times in 2018, writes for the Columbia Journalism Review that billionaires “are proving themselves poor stewards of media companies.” Well, some for sure, including Soon-Shiong. Pearlstine also observes, “It is always dangerous to generalize,” and yes it is.
Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos of The Washington Post have turned out to be disastrous, but I could just as easily point to Glen Taylor at The Minnesota Star Tribune (see below) and John and Linda Henry at The Boston Globe, who have proved to good stewards of their papers — as well as the late Gerry Lenfest, who purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer and donated it to a nonprofit foundation, and Paul Huntsman, who rescued The Salt Lake Tribune from a hedge fund and converted it to a nonprofit.
Yes, what’s happening at the LA Times and the Post is heartbreaking, but billionaire ownership is no worse — and often better — than ownership by a corporate chain or hedge fund.
Media notes
• Pirate radio station targeted. Boston politico Roy Owens is being threatened by the FCC with a fine of nearly $2.4 million if he doesn’t shut down an unlicensed radio station that he is reportedly running out of his home, writes Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub. Broadcast licenses are regulated because, among other things, their signals can’t be allowed to interfere with other stations — and in Owens’ case, what he calls Radio Alpha and Omega is making use of 91.5 FM, which is also the frequency of two legal stations, WMLN at Curry College in Milton to the south and WMFO at Tufts University in Medford to the north.
• Editor of the Year. Congratulations to Suki Dardarian, the retiring editor and senior vice president of The Minnesota Star Tribune, who has won the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Club. The Star Tribune is one of the news organizations that Ellen Clegg and I profile in our book, “What Works in Community News.”
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Oooh! “Actual malice” anyone?
As one who is charged with FCC matters (not broadcast) for a company, I’d advise him to shut it all down immediately and beg for forgiveness to the FCC. In following their enforcement actions for nearly 40 years now, I can’t think of a single time the FCC lost this type of enforcement.