The Guardian better get its chequebook ready...

CNN settlement with Covington student Nick Sandmann a win for the 'little guy,' expert says

CNN’s decision to settle a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann is a big victory for the "little guy," Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson told Fox News.

“It represents a rare example of a 'little guy' being able to stand up to a media behemoth,” said Jacobson, the founder of the law blog Legal Insurrection and former senior editor of the Harvard International Law Journal.

“If not for the aggressive, and presumably contingent fee, representation by famed attorney Linn Wood, the result may have been different," he added.

Jacobson said the $250 million defamation suit was probably settled for at least seven figures but doesn’t expect the exact figure to ever be made public.

“The settlement amount is confidential, but likely was in the millions given the intrusive nature of discovery Sandmann's attorneys would have into the CNN newsmaking process, and the cost of continued defense," he said...

...Attorney Robert Barnes represents other Covington families who are seeking damages against members of the media over the incident. He told Fox News that the cases “shape the future of media in the social media age” and reporters need to be aware of CNN’s decision.

“Every journalist should pay attention to these cases to understand how their stories impact ordinary people, and how they can be individually and institutionally responsible when they get it wrong," he said. "The Covington cases show how dangerous social media lynch mobs can be when led by prominent media personalities, and the CNN settlements show no one is immune from accountability."

Todd McMurtry, part of Sandmann’s legal team, told Fox News on Wednesday that lawsuits against “as many as 13 other defendants will be filed in 30 to 40 days.”

Among them are ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, Slate, The Hill and Gannett, which owns the Cincinnati Inquirer, as well as miscellaneous other small media outlets, according to McMurtry. Separate lawsuits against the Washington Post and NBC have already been filed, he added.

“Once all the parties are added, it will be time for the real fun -- discovery -- because that’s when we may see a glimpse of what the left-leaning media really thinks about conservatives,” Margot Cleveland, who was a law clerk to a federal judge for nearly 25 years, wrote in a column for The Federalist.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-covington-nick-sandmann-settlement

Take your casual misogyny elsewhere, there will be other readers here who don't want to see you using the female anatomy as a term of abuse.

I think the numerous posters who refer to you as a penis do not have a leg to stand on in this regard.

panda?

10 Jan 20 14:45

Heh. He ought to go after that “comedienne” who called for him to be harmed too

=

panda?

10 Jan 20 14:56

I was thinking Elizabeth Warren but yes, Kathy Griffin too

when you say triggered I assume you are referring to the snowflacke suing everyone for saying bad stuff about him, which is not quite true because some black hebrews said some bad things first that triggered him? 

Hanners, YRUSAP?

TBH I can't actually see from the link what the context was - even the vid clips just show a smug lad smiling in a tooclose way at the drummer.  What did these defendants actually say about him (or is that sub judycarter?)

summary. 

 

There was a native american thing going on. 

A coach load from a catholic school turned up, many wearing MAGA hats because they were aunts. 

some "black hebrew" street preachers where there too (I have no idea either) who mocked the boys for dressing like aunts. 

The boys then did some "chants" (amercians are so weird) 

At some point the aunt in question was filmed standing in the face of an old native american chap grinning at him in a weird agressive way as his chums took the piss and pulled faces. 

That video went viral and people said he was a racist trump loveing aunt and that maybe people shuld teach him a lesson. 

Later a longer video came out where the inital harrassment by the black hebrew's is blamed for making the boys "excited" and this somehow means no one should have said anything bad about the little aunt. 

 

hth

 

If you watch the whole video it’s pretty outrageous that this kid had his life trashed by worldwide media. After a prolonged standoff with the crazy Black guys where the schoolkids did nothing wrong, it then ended up with the Native American fella doing his drum beating in front of the kids, walking slowly along. He then stopped in front of this kid who stood there smiling.

How that generated millions of outraged people I have no idea. Am glad the media are getting sued.

I've never heard of this kid.

So it seems CNN have settled his lawsuit to be rid of a nuisance. You know settlements aren't legal precedent right?

I have just twigged that MAGA means make America great again.  Srsly.

Surely the native American should have had a banner saying "America was fooking awesome until you cvnts turned up and killed all the buffalo with syphilis".

Re the black Hebrews, I seem to recall drunkenly watching a late night disco channel doc on the lost tribe of Israel (13th?) that ended up in sub Saharan Africa with the ark of the covenant 2500 plus years ago.  maybe it's to do with that.  If I had to guess it was somewhere on the western side, but I can't recall.  You know those rare nights when you need one more tv prog and that's the night they decide not to put on a die hard.

He really looks like a cug smunt which is probably half the problem. 

Even if you believe the worst about what goes on in his head there is nothing in the video that justified the abuse he got in the media and online.

Completely fooking irrelevant how auntish the MAGA motto is. Thousands upon thousands of kids and adults at the pro-life march were wearing them. That doesn’t make it OK to pick on one kid to uber-bully across the world.

I think you people need to look deeper into things before making hapless assumptions which fall apart upon even the most gentle questioning. For all its faults, the US is leading the world on many fronts.

“America was fooking awesome until you cvnts turned up and killed all the buffalo with syphilis"

Yes it was such fun going to a neighbouring tribe to burn down all their wigwams, rape their squaws and enslave their children. Not to mention driving thousands of bison over cliffs because we could. 

I had no idea that “MAGA” meant Make America Great Again” either.  You live and learn.  
 

And I don’t suppose the MAGA-hat-wearers would understand what we’re bothered about down in Sussex either.   

As a devout man of the cloth and lawyer, one must not allow oneself to disregard the facts which, them being:

1. yes, he looks like a little khunt. 

2. he hasn't done anything wrong.

 

I hadn’t heard about this before. From Wikipedia:

”there was an overlap on the Plaza of a small group from the Indigenous Peoples March and a larger group of students from the all-male Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Kentucky.”

“As more Covington students arrived, and in response to these taunts, the students performed school spirit sports chants, including their version of a Mauri haka.”

oh no I’m sure there wasn’t anything problematic about that at all.

 

PS - in the OP i do love how Hanners keeps calling him the "little guy" and how ace it is that the "little guy" stood up to the big media bosses etc... 

It does make one wonder who is supporting the "little guy" ? 

 

Isn't the "little guy" comment quoted from Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson, not Hanners?

Mind you, a 16-year-old school kid up against ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, Slate, The Hill and Gannett, which owns the Cincinnati Inquirer is pretty much a nailed on definition of "little guy".

 

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trump-nick-sandmann-washington-post_n_5db985e1e4b00d83f7204f7a?ri18n=true

 

In their lawsuit, the Sandmann family accuses the Post of “targeting and bullying” the teen in its articles about the incident because he’s a “white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap” during a school field trip to the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally.

The family sought $250 million in damages.

Judge William Bertelsman initially dismissed the lawsuit in July, ruling the 33 statements Sandmann filed the complaint over were not defamatory and were protected under the First Amendment.

After reviewing an amended version of the lawsuit, Bertelsman ruled Monday that the case could proceed into the discovery phase, stating that “justice requires” further review of three of the 33 statements the Sandmann family contends were libelous.

The statements in question involve Phillips’ claim that Sandmann “blocked” him and “would not allow him to retreat.” Sandmann’s lawyers say Phillips “deliberately lied” and that the Post should have done more to vet his claims.

The Post did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

The Sandmann family has also sued CNN and NBC over their coverage of the incident. Both news organizations have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuits, which are pending.

"FFS Laz"

What? You don't think guys on horseback running whole herds of buffalo full tilt over 30m high cliffs would have been a stunning sight? I don't mean in a good way, but fook what an awesome sight in terms of man's ingenious exploitation of nature. They weren't doing it for money m88 they were doing it to have enough food to survive.

The allegation that they chanted "build the wall" is fake news. There is literally no video or audio evidence to show this happened. That's part of the reason the payout has been made.

 

They weren’t chanting ‘Build the Wall’. Watch the footage. The person who alleged that has withdrawn it. As for the amount claimed, patently absurd but that’s the US for you. 

Yeah I don’t know what everyone’s getting so worked up about, I’m sure the version of the haka performed by the all-male Catholic high school from Kentucky had been extensively workshopped in their cultural sensitivity classes to be a respectful reflection of Maori culture. 

He's a kid who happened to be surrounded by lunatics and who unfortunately isn't experienced in life enough to leave the loonies alone. When confronted, he stood his ground, in a peaceful manner. For a trump supporting conservative to do this is considered some kind of thought crime in the USA at present. The intolerant left.

""America was fooking awesome until you cvnts turned up and killed all the buffalo with syphilis"

Exactly this. Ever since, indigenous culture has suffered, its people have been oppressed and all sense of the country's real heritage has been lost.