Four major media outlets published defamatory stories about a high school student.
Four major media outlets were sued for their defamation.
Four major media outlets requested the defamation cases be dismissd.
Four major media outlets were denied.
That’s right. The New York Times, Rolling Stone, ABC News, and CBS News all requested that the defamation cases levied against them by Nick Sandmann’s legal team be dismissed. But the judge said no.
Sandmann tweeted the news last week saying, “Motions to dismiss defamation lawsuits against NY Times, Rolling Stone, ABC, & CBS were just denied.”
The U.S. District Court in Covington, Ky. denied the requests by all four media outlets to have the defamation cases dismissed, though it is not yet clear as to the intentions of the media outlets in requesting the dismissal.
A request for dismissal could mean that the media outlets feel there is no case against them and they wish to end the legal fiasco, or it could mean that they wish to settle out of court.
CNN and The Washington Post both settled out of court with an undisclosed amount awarded to Sandmann.
Sandmann told The Post Millennial that this legal move “marks another important step towards achieving justice against a media that thinks it has a license to smear.”
The story begins nearly two years ago when Sandmann and his colleagues from Covington Catholic High School were attending the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. The march is the largest annual pro-life conference in the country and is always scheduled on the weekend close to January 22, which was the day in 1973 that the horrific Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade was decided.
After the March, Sandmann and his school were sight-seeing near the Lincoln Memorial when they were approached by Native American activist, Nathan Phillips. Phillips and his entourage were playing drums and chanting a native tune when they approach Sandmann and his friends. Out-of-context videos show what appear to be a smug Sandmann trying to stare down the native activist while singing his song.
The video immediately went viral and outlets did not pass the opportunity to politicize the event, since Sandmann was wearing a MAGA hat. He was accused of being a racist and described as intolerant of natives. He was not reached out to for a quote or his side of the story before numerous major media outlets published the defamatory pieces.
Within a few days, other videos started surfacing that showed the entire picture. Many outlets were forced to recant their stories and issues corrections. Some simply adjusted their original stories and made no mention of their error.
This was a historic event that displayed the frightening political bias of the mainstream media.
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