01/23/2020 / By JD Heyes
A year ago this month, a group of young men from Covington Catholic School in Kentucky were in Washington, D.C., attending a pro-life event and sightseeing when they were accosted by a Native American activist named Nathan Phillips.
While the teens were taking in the Lincoln Memorial, Phillips approached one, Nick Sandmann, and began banging a drum in his face.
Sandmann did nothing except stand there and smile at Phillips; he didn’t accost the older gentleman, did not call him a name, did not touch him or try to harm him in any way.
But because he and most of the kids in the group were wearing iconic red Trump “Make America Great Again” hats, the disgustingly dishonest “mainstream media” fabricated the narrative that Sandmann and his group approached (and harassed) Phillips. Video of the incident that soon went viral clearly showed that Phillips was the ‘aggressor,’ that Sandmann and the group of Catholic teens were the ones who were accosted and abused.
Sandmann and his family sued three media outlets — CNN, the Washington Post, and NBC Universal — for libel, and this week CNN settled their case with the teen for $275 million. It remains to be seen whether the other two media outlets will do so.
But in the meantime, another round of lawsuits has been filed, this time against Leftist press and political figures who attempted to incite violence and threaten the Covington teens over the misinformation that was put out by the #NeverTrump media.
Following CNN and pro-life teenager Nick Sandmann’s settlement of a defamation suit over the former’s coverage of the 2019 March for Life, it appears the next round of suits has been filed against media and political figures who falsely accused other pro-life teens of harassment.
As video of the incident went viral, many of these media and public figures deleted their nasty condemnations and threats, including one from Reza Aslan, a former CNN journalist who tweeted a picture of Sandmann accompanied by the question, “have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s?” (Related: Judge dismisses defamation lawsuit against Nick Sandmann, affirms that the Washington Post can lie, smear and defame anyone with malicious fictions.)
In fact, as The New American reported this week, Aslan only deleted his tweet after the announced settlement between Sandmann and his network. That’s likely because he was served this week with a defamation claim that was filed by Sandmann’s attorney, Robert Barnes, over the summer.
Aslan, an Iranian immigrant, was fired from CNN because he repeatedly called President Trump a “piece of s**t.” He wasn’t at all apologetic for his threatening tweet…until now, apparently.
Aslan is just one of 12 people whom Sandmann is suing, according to Barnes. In addition to Sandmann, eight other Covington Catholic boys have sued as well. Those being named are 2020 Democratic presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Ann Navaro of CNN, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, and Trump-hating ‘comedienne’ Kathy Griffin.
The suits allege that the defendants smeared the boys illegally.
“False and Defamatory Accusations against the plaintiffs are defamatory per se, as they are libelous on their face without resort to additional facts, and as clearly demonstrated here, [the plaintiffs] were subjected to public hatred, contempt, scorn, obloquy, and shame,” it reads.
It also states:
The conduct of the plaintiffs, based on the false facts the defendants placed and circulated into the court of public opinion, led to these lifetime labels on these minors: “display of hate, disrespect and intolerance”; “heartbreaking”; “decency decayed”; “racist”; “cried for America”; “infamous”; “gall”; “shameful”; “darker chapters”; compared to genocide; “laughing and egging on”; “hurtful” behavior; “awful”; “cavemen gestures”; “taunting”; “harassing”; “stalking”; “mocking”; “bullies” who should be doxed, “named and shamed”, expelled from school, denied admission to college, be punched in the face, and their lives ruined.
Barnes said in an interview with American Greatness he is representing nine of the Covington Catholic families for free and that additional lawsuits are tied up in state court but for one, which is on appeal in the 6th Circuit.
This needed to happen. And these people and their media outlets need to be punished. Enough is enough.
Sources include:
Tagged Under: CNN, Covington Catholic, defamation, fake news, hoax, Journalism, lawsuits, libel, lies, maga hat, mainstream media, Nathan Philips, NBCUniversal, news media, Nick Sandmann, NYT, Robert Barnes, settlement, slander, smear, threats, video, violence, Washington Post
COPYRIGHT © 2017 JOURNALISM NEWS