Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann’s $250 million lawsuit against the Washington Post was dismissed by a federal judge in Kentucky on Friday, Fox News reported.
Sandmann was seeking damages stemming from the allegedly defamatory manner in which he was portrayed in the Post’s reporting of a January confrontation between a group of students and Native American activist Nathan Phillips.
Viral encounter
At the heart of the litigation was a photo of Sandmann and Phillips facing each other on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which went viral within hours of the event itself. The story received exetensive attention from the Post and countless other news agencies. Sandmann was wearing a Make America Great Again hat and was shown smiling broadly at Phillips.
News coverage accused Sandmann and other students of initiating a hostile encounter and taunting Phillips and other Native American protesters by saying “Build that wall,” “Trump2020,” and “Go back to Africa.” Videos released later showed that the neither Sandmann nor the other students initiated the confrontation and that they only chanted their school’s cheer as a way to try to drown out insults being shouted at them.
Phillips also alleged that Sandmann was trying to block him from leaving the area, but Sandmann denied that claim. The incident took place while the Covington Catholic students were attending the National Right to Life rally and Phillips was attending a Native American protest event taking place in the vicinity on the same day.
First Amendment grounds
The lawsuit alleged that the Post’s reporting triggered threats, bullying and reputational harm directed against Sandmann. Articles and tweets on the Post’s website and social media pages gave a false impression of events and led to a “mob of bullies which attacked, vilified & threatened” Sandmann, according to the complaint in the case.
The suit also claimed that the Washington Post “ignored the truth and falsely accused Nicholas of, among other things, ‘accost[ing]’ Phillips by ‘suddenly swarm[ing]’ him in a ‘threaten[ing]’ and ‘physically intimidat[ing]’ manner.”
U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman ruled that while the Washington Post may have gotten facts wrong in their reporting, the paper was protected by the First Amendment. Phillips stated that he felt intimidated and unable to leave the area, and the Post was within its rights to report his opinion and belief, according to the judge’s findings.
Sandmann’s family said they would appeal the decision. “I believe fighting for justice for my son and family is of vital national importance,” Nicholas’ father Ted Sandmann said. “If what was done to Nicholas is not legally actionable, then no one is safe.”
Truth matters
“The law must protect innocent minors targeted by journalists publishing click-bait sensationalized news,” co-counsel for the Sandmann family Todd McMurtry said in a statement. “This is especially true in the current hyper-partisan political environment.”
While it is true that the Washington Post is protected by the First Amendment, media outlets also have a responsibility to report the truth and should face serious consequences when failing to do so causes undue and irreparable harm to an individual’s reputation and good name.
Clearly, the Washington Post and other news agencies wanted to make Sandmann, a Trump supporter, look like a bigot and a bully. They carelessly rushed to judgment before all salient facts emerged, and with any luck, they will eventually be held accountable for the profound damage inflicted upon this young man.
349 Responses
An intriguing discussion is worth comment. I think that you ought to write more about this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people do not discuss such issues. To the next! Best wishes!!
Having read this I believed it was rather enlightening. I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this short article together. I once again find myself spending a lot of time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worthwhile!
I need to to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it. I’ve got you saved as a favorite to look at new stuff you post…
I blog quite often and I truly appreciate your content. This great article has truly peaked my interest. I will take a note of your blog and keep checking for new details about once a week. I subscribed to your RSS feed as well.
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Well written!
Good web site you have got here.. It’s hard to find good quality writing like yours these days. I honestly appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!
Hi there! This post couldn’t be written much better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept preaching about this. I most certainly will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he’ll have a very good read. Many thanks for sharing!
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you penning this write-up and also the rest of the site is also really good.
I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that’s both equally educative and amusing, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. The problem is something too few people are speaking intelligently about. Now i’m very happy that I found this during my search for something concerning this.
Shop; Unique Functions. Simple Product Layouts. Post with review. Advanced Product Layout. Best conversion pages. Frontend Search · Listing example …
Welcome to iBeautys Best, iBeautys Best is the number one destination for Latest Beauty Products. Here you can easily buy your desired product from all over the world with very reasonable price.
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I have found something which helped me. Kudos!
What are some remedies for opiate withdrawal
Natural Releaf CBD | New York CBD Store with locations in Murray Hill, NY | Upper East Side, NY | White Plains, NY Serving New York City, NY and Westchester, NY High Quality CBD Products With Lab Test
Best view i have ever seen !
Love watching sunset !
Love watching sunset !
Love watching sunset !
Love watching sunset !
Fantastic beat ! I would like to apprentice whilst you amend your website, how can i subscribe for a blog website? The account helped me a applicable deal. I were a little bit familiar of this your broadcast provided vivid clear concept
No Contact Temperature Screening
My partner and I stumbled over here coming from a different website and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking into your web page again.
Its laborious to find knowledgeable individuals on this matter, but you sound like you recognize what youre speaking about! Thanks
I dont even know how I finished up right here, but I thought this submit was once great. I don’t recognize who you might be but definitely you are going to a famous blogger in the event you are not already 😉 Cheers!
There are some fascinating points in time in this article however I dont know if I see all of them heart to heart. There may be some validity however I will take hold opinion till I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we would like more! Added to FeedBurner as nicely
Great post. I was checking constantly this weblog and I’m inspired! Extremely useful info particularly the final section 🙂 I handle such information a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a very lengthy time. Thank you and good luck.
Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam feedback? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
Wow, amazing blog format! How lengthy have you ever been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The full look of your site is great, let alone the content material!
Heya i’m for the first time here. I came across this board and I to find It truly useful & it helped me out a lot. I’m hoping to present one thing back and help others such as you helped me.
vedonlyöntivihjeet
naturally like your website but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very bothersome to tell the truth nevertheless I will surely come back again.
Normally I don’t read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite great post.
Find The Top Rated Web Hosting
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content seem to be running off the screen in Chrome. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The design look great though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Cheers
My developer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard very good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular article! It is the little changes that make the largest changes. Many thanks for sharing!
magnificent points altogether, you just gained a new reader. What may you recommend about your post that you made some days ago? Any certain?
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. thanks a lot
Very good information. Lucky me I discovered your website by chance (stumbleupon). I have saved it for later!