A Florida jury found CNN liable for defaming Zachary Young, a US Navy veteran, in a 2021 story about people paid to rescue endangered Afghans following the Taliban takeover.
The jury initially awarded Young $5 million in damages, but a settlement was reached between CNN and Young, with the amount not disclosed, after the jury began considering punitive damages.
This settlement resolves the defamation case against CNN, which was brought by Young over a report by the network’s chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt that aired on Jake Tapper’s show.
The November 2021 report by Marquardt, featured Young and his efforts to evacuate Afghans. The US Navy veteran claimed the report defamed him by implying he was operating a “black market” and charging exorbitant fees to desperate Afghans attempting to flee their country after the Taliban retook control of it earlier that year.
Young was named and his face was shown during segments on both Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta’s shows.
Internal CNN communications during the discovery process revealed that Marquardt’s story made it to air even though some of his colleagues believed it to be “a mess,” “incomplete,” “very much not ready for prime time,” “80% emotion, 20% obscured fact,” and “full of holes like Swiss cheese.”
Other internal communications revealed that Marquardt had declared that he was “gonna nail this Zachary Young mfucker” and agree that Young had a “punchable face.”
Young and his legal team contended that CNN had published “lies” about his business that “rendered Young permanently unemployable in the career he has trained his whole life for” and “resulted in Young’s income plunging to nothing, and have caused Young to suffer millions of dollars in lost income.”
After deliberating for over eight hours, the jury found CNN liable for defamation and initially awarded Young $5 million in damages. Before the jury could decide on punitive damages, CNN and Young reached a settlement, the terms of which are not publicly disclosed.
Critics slammed CNN's recklessness and defamation of a patriotic American like Young who was in Afghanistan to help after President Joe Biden fumbled the US withdrawal from that country after nearly two decades of war against the Taliban.
The discredited and low-rated far-left network is known for its biased reporting against conservatives and the right in general. The network has been leading an unrelenting smear campaign against Donald Trump and Republican politicians in the United States who ridiculed it as "fake news" or "communist news network."
