Mr Sandmann, bring me some bling ...

Attachment 55146

:chitown::smileylaughing:

Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington Catholic High School student who sued major news outlets in the aftermath of their coverage of a controversial interaction he and several of his classmates had with a Native American activist, said Friday that he has settled his libel lawsuit against the Washington Post.
“On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit,” Sandmann wrote in a tweet Friday morning, adding that he thanks his lawyers, his family, and “millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me.”
“I still have more to do,” Sandmann added.

Should I have heard of this bloke?

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Originally Posted by Texpat

I filed $250M defamation lawsuit

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isn't america great ?

Just cos he filed for 250M does not mean that he settled for anything close to that.

Oh look, texpats back.

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Originally Posted by Cujo

Oh look, texpats back.

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...so, two inconsequential events then...

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Originally Posted by sabang

Should I have heard of this bloke?

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century thread -
Thread: CNN Sued Big For Defaming a 16 yr Old Kid

Washington Post settles $250M suit with Covington teen Nick Sandmann

The Washington Post on Friday agreed to settle a monster $250 million lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann over its botched coverage of his 2019 encounter with a Native American elder.

Sandmann declared the victory in a tweet on his 18th birthday. It’s unclear how much the newspaper settled for.

“On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit,” he wrote.

“Thanks to @ToddMcMurtry & @LLinWood for their advocacy. Thanks to my family & millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me. I still have more to do,” he continued.

It’s the teen’s second win in a whopping $800 million defamation battle against a number of news outlets including the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Hill and NBC.

CNN agreed to settle with Sandmann in January this year as part of a separate $275 million claim.

Sandmann and a group of his Covington classmates were vilified on social media after they were filmed wearing “Make America Great Again” hats after an anti-abortion rally while being yelled at by demonstrators.

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Originally Posted by TheRealKW

Just cos he filed for 250M

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and was not considered a clown for claiming that amount of damages - ain't america great

Always add a couple of zeros, nothing lost, more publicity, gives the judge or jury bigger numbers to think about, and scares the shite out of stockholders because when it does go wrong it can go very wrong; all in, added incentive for the slimy media to settle on the court steps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bowie

Washington Post settles $250M suit with Covington teen Nick Sandmann

The Washington Post on Friday agreed to settle a monster $250 million lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann over its botched coverage

It’s the teen’s second win in a whopping $800 million defamation battle against a number of news outlets including the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Hill and NBC.

CNN agreed to settle with Sandmann in January this year as part of a separate $275 million claim.

Sandmann and a group of his Covington classmates were vilified on social media after they were filmed wearing “Make America Great Again” hats after an anti-abortion rally while being yelled at by demonstrators.

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This is what happens when the news media reports only what fits it's political ideology.

What was considered to be libel?

The settlement deal was cut in phone calls between the plaintiffs and defense attorneys. The risk of a jury trial. Juries are fickle and unknown. In this case Sandmann, a 16 year old adolescent being bullied by the media. The media portrayed Sandmann as the aggressor. Following videos showed him as passive.

The original lawsuits of 33 claims were reduced to 3 claims by a judge. Discovery proceeded on the three claims.

Avoid a jury trial. Nobody knows what a jury will find. The real hazard here is the plaintiffs could make a good case of large media bullying a young student by misrepresenting facts.

The settlement was cut between the attorneys, plaintiffs and defendants. The Loser is the insurance company.

In one case I worked we gave USD $1M to the family of a man who by violating safety protocols and procedures managed to kill himself. Why did we settle, because it was a case of a big international company being sued by the family of the victim. The plaintiffs stated the company failed to warn because a sign wasn't placed on each individual conveyor cart. Warning signs and placards were everywhere. You could not avoid seeing the warning signs and placards, along with bells and whistles. There were visual and audible warnings of the hazard.

Yet, the insurance company, and it is the insurance company that actually makes the defendants decisions in this type of case, was not willing to risk a jury trial and the potential that the jury may award multimillions.

So, although opinions concerning the incident in question are divided, Sandmann won, not once, but twice with six more active ongoing lawsuits.

The Last 4 paragraphs explains what happened:

HomeUSA News


‘Two down, six to go’: Mainstream media begins to pay price for agenda push as Covington kid Sandmann wins WaPo, CNN settlements

24 Jul, 2020 20:43 / Updated 2 days ago

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Kentucky's Nicholas Sandmann celebrated his 18th birthday on Friday by notching his second victory against the mainstream media for defaming him, providing pushback in a world where false reporting seems to always go unpunished.
The former Covington Catholic High School student announced a settlement in his $250 million lawsuit against the Washington Post on Twitter. As in the January settlement of a similar defamation suit against CNN, the terms weren't disclosed, and Sandmann said he has more work to do.
“The fight isn't over... two down, six to go,” he tweeted, referring to lawsuits against six other media outlets. “
Don't hold your breath, @jack,” Sandmann added, threatening a case against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
He has lawsuits pending against ABC, CBS, the New York Times, Rolling Stone magazine and Gannett, the owner of USA Today and the Cincinnati Enquirer.


The Washington Post issued a statement saying, “We are pleased that we have been able to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of the remaining claims in this lawsuit.”
Sandmann's lawyer, Lin Wood, echoed his client's forward-looking reaction. “You deserve justice,” Wood said. “We all deserve justice. By this time next year, justice will be ours.”


The Sandmann settlements mark rare cases of mainstream media outlets paying a price for publishing false reports that fit its political agenda. US laws make it difficult to push back legally, especially in the case of public figures, who must prove malicious intent and a “reckless disregard for the truth” to win libel judgments.

But the CNN and Washington Post suits also may reflect a trend of fighting back, at least in the case of people who aren't famous or holders of public office.An appellate court in New York earlier this month reinstated a defamation lawsuit against MSNBC host Joy Reid.
In that case, Reid falsely interpreted a photo of a Californian woman speaking with a Hispanic boy to suggest that the incident was a racist attack. Both the woman, Roslyn La Liberte, and the boy said afterward that they were having a civil conversation. La Liberte, predictably, was branded hateful and attacked.


In the UK, Harry Potter author JK Rowling threatened a lawsuit after a children's news service called her comments “transphobic” and suggested a boycott of her books. The news service, called The Day, issued an apology on Wednesday and pledged to make a donation to a charity of Rowling's choice.


The Sandmann controversy began after students from his all-boys Kentucky school took a class trip to Washington to participate in an anti-abortion march in January 2019. The students met up at the Lincoln Memorial and were waiting for their bus to return home when they were confronted by a group of Black Hebrew Israelite demonstrators, who hurled racist and homophobic insults at the boys for nearly an hour.

They boys then asked a chaperone if they could perform one of their pep rally chants to drown out the expletives. A group of Native American activists, led by Nathan Phillips, responded by coming toward the boys and banging drums. Phillips later claimed falsely that the boys blocked his escape path.
A short clip used by CNN and other media showed Phillips beating a drum in Sandmann's face. The student, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, stood still, looking at Phillips and at one point smiling to show“I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation.”

The media interpreted the encounter as predominantly white students racially harassing the American Indian group. Sandmann, in particular, was pilloried for allegedly mocking “Native American elder” Phillips with his “smirk.” A week after the incident, when some media outlets had already issued corrections in light of longer videos that showed more fully what happened, the Washington Post published a column titled, ‘Time to take on the Covington smirk’.


The media coverage prompted a flood of death threats against Sandmann and his classmates. Even a journalist, INE Entertainment's Erik Abriss, wished death on the students and their parents. Their school was closed temporarily out of fear for the children.
But Sandmann fought back, doing an interview on NBC's Today Show to tell his side of the story. He graduated from Covington in May, tweeting: “After being told I would never get into college and my life was done, I'll be going to an amazing school on scholarship. Don't back down and keep winning.”