Below is my column in The Hill on the verdict against CNN in the defamation case brought by Navy veteran Zachary Young. The jury will now determine the amount of punitive damages in a case that speaks not only to CNN but the media at large. As the media readies for a second Trump term, there is every indication that news outlets like NBC are preparing to replicate the same advocacy journalism that characterized Trump’s first term. If so, the media will continue to speed along its own demise with many seeking their news from new media.
Here is the column:
“Your credibility with me … is about none.”
Those words to CNN counsel by Judge William Henry also clearly spoke for the Florida jury which, on Friday, awarded $5 million for Navy veteran Zachary Young and approved an additional amount, still to be determined, for punitive damages.
The CNN loss is only the latest in a series of media cases that have reversed decades of case law where the media largely prevailed under highly protective legal standards. It says a great deal about the state of modern journalism and its unrelenting efforts at self-destruction.
In “The Indispensable Right,” I discuss the radical shift in American journalism that occurred with the rejection of neutrality and objectivity in favor of advocacy journalism. J-schools now teach that objectivity is a dated concept. As former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones has explained, “All journalism is activism.”
After interviewing more than 75 media leaders, Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, detailed how media leaders view neutrality and objectivity as dated concepts that inhibit social and political agendas.
The public’s response to this trend has been both predictable and pronounced. The famous “Let’s Go, Brandon” incident after a NASCAR race, after all, was more of a criticism of the media than of Joe Biden — a “Yankee Doodling” of the press for its distortion of facts.
Revenue and ratings for media outlets have plummeted, although there are other contributing factors. During the trial, CNN host Jake Tapper was challenged for his testimony that he “doesn’t pay attention to ratings.” That does not appear to be the case at the network, which is cratering and desperately trying to reverse the ratings plunge. CNN has reportedly lost half of its viewership, hitting lows not seen in three decades.
The jury clearly believed, as the network’s slogan claims, that “This is CNN.” That is probably the reason it will soon award punitive damages. However, this is not just CNN. The case itself highlighted everything wrong with modern media.
The segment aired on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on Nov. 11, 2021, and trashed Young in a story about Afghans being preyed upon by groups promising to get them out of the country amid the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. forces. Tapper told his audience ominously how CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt discovered that “Afghans trying to get out of the country face a black market full of promises, demands of exorbitant fees, and no guarantee of safety or success.”
Marquardt detailed how “desperate Afghans are being exploited” and need to pay “exorbitant, often impossible amounts” and then named Young and his company as examples.
The trial revealed internal messages from Marquardt that he wanted to “nail this Zachary Young motherf—–” and thought the story would be Young’s “funeral.” After promising to “nail” Young, CNN editor Matthew Philips responded that he was “gonna hold you to that cowboy!” CNN senior editor Fuzz Hogan described Young as “a s—.”
As often occurs today, CNN allegedly gave Young only two hours to respond before the story ran. It is a typical ploy of the press to claim that they gave someone a chance to respond. The call often comes at the end of the day to create the appearance of fairness. Nevertheless, Young did respond to the chagrin of CNN producers and made clear that key elements of the story were untrue.
CNN’s defense in court was a case study in how not to defend a defamation lawsuit. It included a series of self-inflicted wounds, delivered in front of the jury. However, it is only the latest loss for major media, given recent courthouse setbacks for the New York Times, NBC, and Deadspin. ABC News recently settled its own defamation case out of court, and previously Fox News paid a massive settlement.
Nevertheless, some outlets appear to be doubling down in the hope that they can ride anti-Trump coverage back to robust ratings. Last week, NBC announced that it was bringing Yamiche Alcindor to the White House press corps. Alcindor, who also worked for PBS, was widely criticized for often preceding questions with attacks on conservatives or over-the-top praise for Joe Biden or Democrats. While others saw raw political bias, Alcindor explained that it was her job to use journalism to bend the “moral arc toward justice.”
For decades, the media found ample protection within the protective shell created by the Supreme Court after New York Times v. Sullivan. The Court sought to create “breathing space” for the media by articulating a standard that now applies to both public officials and public figures. The demanding standard requires a showing of “actual malice,” where the media had actual knowledge of a statement’s falsity or showed reckless disregard for whether it was true or false.
The string of media losses reflects a change not in the law but in the media itself. As the press increasingly engages in advocacy journalism, reckless disregard for the truth is becoming the norm, as shown in the CNN case. It could get worse.
Some have questioned the extension of this protective standard to cases involving public figures, which encompasses anyone who has achieved a modicum of fame in business, sports, or other pursuits. A couple of justices have also expressed skepticism about why non-public figures should shoulder such a burden when people lie about them.
Meanwhile, the public is abandoning legacy media at a run, turning to new media in the form of blogs and citizen journalists. Recently, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of such a citizen journalist in a criminal case — a woman known as La Gordiloca (loosely translated as “fat, crazy lady”). Describing her as a “swearing muckraker who is upending border journalism,” the New York Times admitted that La Gordiloca “reflects how many people on the border now prefer to get their news.”
The rise in citizen journalists in new media and advocacy journalism in legacy media will only likely increase the number of such cases in the coming years. For mainstream media, the skepticism that they are facing in society is now becoming equally evident in courts. To paraphrase Judge Henry, their credibility with the public is about none.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
If Trump were truly a patriotic American, the first thing he would do as the new president is make ENGLISH the sole official language of the United States of America.
Actual Americans would no longer be taxed to facilitate the invasion of foreigners, and all the illegal or otherwise aliens would be compelled to pay for their own interpreters.
No more “free stuff,” “free status,” and taxpayer facilitation of the parasites obtaining those unconstitutional “benefits” and “entitlements.”
You really are ignorant, make english the official language?
First, you don’t speak english, you speak, its American, a subgroup of modern English.
And how would trump make that the official language? Any guess?
* executive order that all federal documents and printed material shall be in English. Printed material can be scanned and computer translated at your pleasure by the reader, I suppose. Old people not speaking English will be unable to learn a new language. File a hardship and the local library will scan for you. Every county in the USA has a Carnegie library.
“Actual Americans…”?
As opposed to Navajo? Arapaho? Sioux? Shoshone? The list is pretty extensive. Who did you have in mind?
We can all leave leaving North America and Canada with approximately 2 million people and 1 billion bison presumably.
There was no America until 1789.
The Indians were roaming around long before that year.
The Indians had absolutely no possibility of being Americans.
They were native to Asia having traveled to this continent using the Alaskan or Bering Land Bridge.
* actually , what you say has truth. Every nation must have one language. It facilitates efficiency in emergencies at the least.
In sociology and ways to break groups changing languages is a tactic. The entire language change of they them, cisgender etc was just that. Breaking apart men and women as groups believe it or not.
The feds will use only man and woman recognizing two genders as executive action today. The FDA refers to women as people who give birth and men. You have to laugh. Men maintained their group name. I won’t laugh.
What’s wrong with the mainstream media can be summed up in one word: China. The companies that own most of the big media outlets do business in China–they’ve opened theme parks there, market their movies there, etc. So they have a conflict of interest. They have to placate the CCP in the type of news they broadcast to continue getting favorable treatment of their business ventures in China.
You may have seen the montages some internet sleuths have put together, where the news anchors are all saying the same thing, literally word-for-word. They are obviously reading from a script – all reading from the same script – but who wrote it? Perhaps you’re saying, “China did.”
100% PROOF OF DUNCEOCRAT CRIMINALITY:
ABSOLUTELY!
Did Madame Jill get a pardon?
Jill, the former First Biden Family Babysitter is still gainfully employed.
She will have a highly trained Secret Service close protection agent to carry the Biden diaper bag for the remainder of The Big Guy’s life.
America’s four years of abuse and neglect are over.
The world breathes a sigh of relief, as a cadaver is replaced with a live human being.
Let’s go easy on the Trump haters today, even though they are here with their silly comments. It’s a day to celebrate.
* They’re just sleeping like a really bad retrovirus.
Joe Biden has proven himself to be a 100% POS, despicable, depraved, degenerate Dunceocrat for his evil pardons of Criminal Fauci, Criminal Milley, members of Biden’s Crime Family, and other assorted POS, despicable, depraved, degenerate Dunceocrats.
Can even an obsequiouslowlife piece of trash Duinceocrat like Dennis SmackIntire defend the pardons of all these Dunceocrat Criminals who have been awarded a “Get Out of Jail” card? Of course, he can’t. If the Dunceocrats’ manufactured fake cases weren’t lawfare, than how can the Criminal Dunceocrats need a pardon when there can be no lawfare against them either?
The sweeping mangling of the law by the Criminal Dunceocrats warrants that all of them be prosecutred anyway and then nailed on perjury charges and theft of Government funds–all NEW ILLEGAL ACTS BY DUNCEOCRAT CRIMINALS.
I would like to see everyone connected with the J6 committee compelled to appear under oath in Congress and required to reveal all they know about what went on. Who, for example, destroyed the records and on whose authority. And if they lie, prosecute for perjury.
We need to get to the bottom of the Deep State coup. At the very least we should learn who has actually been running the government.
* they weren’t pardoned. They were commuted.
Young,
Secession is not prohibited by the Constitution by the intent and design of the Founders and Framers, by multiple state documents of ratification, and by the letter and spirit of the 10th Amendment.
________________
The ratification document of New York, July 26, 1788:
That the Powers of Government may be reassumed by the People, whensoever it shall become necessary to their Happiness;…
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratny.asp
________________________________________________________
The ratification document of Rhode Island, 1790:
III. That the powers of government may be reassumed by the people whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The ratification document of Virginia, 1788:
WE the Delegates of the people of Virginia,…DO in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will:…
_________________________________________
James Madison rejected a proposal which was made at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to grant the new federal government the specific power to suppress a seceding state.
“A Union of states containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a state would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound.”
– James Madison
____________________
“Where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“[Where powers are assumed by Lincoln which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act of Lincoln’s assumption is the rightful remedy].”
– [Thomas Jefferson]
________________________
10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
* Yes, many are hysterical. I think there’s a chip implanted in their brains causing it. Seriously…
*female Democrat senators
* The squad
Well, if it’s a chip that can be rectified. But those willingly following a cult? That is a tough one to fix. Just don’t drink the kool aid Let trump drink it first and watch what happens.
Wait, are those the female senators asking “questions” of a Trump nominee? Hard to tell the difference.
I doubt those woke ditch pigs or women. Womxn and womyn, perhaps. Or may “Birthing Persons”.
Not women.
Thank you, Joe Biden!
(For not dying in office before Trump got sworn in, and leaving Kamala Harris as President.)
Yeah I was concerned about that too. That, and his starting WWIII and nuclear armageddon during his last 48 hours. Thank God neither one happened.
It appears that Americans are relieved Biden is finally gone. Nancy Pelosi might miss him but otherwise Alexandra Pelosi informs us that Biden has few friends. However, outliers seem to indicate that the trolls are experiencing a higher than normal degree of mania.
🎶”Manic Monday” 🎶 applies
🤪
According to multiple polls, more Americans disapprove of Trump that approve him–the worst favorability polling for a modern incoming president. So, no. You are wrong.
Gigi, when you’re on your back the meter is running
Wait! NUTCHACHACHA changed its name.
Did Gigi get a pardon?
Depends on what you consider facts to be.
I think we now live in a post fact world so if trump says he was elected in a landslide (he was not) then it is a “fact” he was.
Likewise if polling show more people don’t like him than do, if trump says he is the most loved person since Jesus, actually more loved than Jesus, then that is the “fact” of the land.
Facts are fungable.
* even more disapproved of Harris.
I don’t see the pardons as that big of a problem. Most of the pardon were expected. In fact, they might have created an opportunity to finally uncover the truth. Those who received pardons no longer have a right against self incrimination. DOJ can force them to testify about not only their actions, which they have to be completely candid about, or face a perjury charge, and they have to rat out their partners and underlings, who didn’t receive a sweet, tasty pardon. Now Liz Cheney can be asked about evidence that was destroyed or withheld, witness tampering, anything. We might finally get to the bottom of J6 informants. And if she lies, the DOJ has already set the precedent of seeking stiff jail sentences for perjury by political operatives. I do think that the DOJ should challenge the pardon for Milley and possibly any still serving politician. There has to be some outer parameter for pardons. For example, I can’t believe that Biden could have legally issued a pardon for everyone in the state of CA. I am not sure how you can pardon congressmen who are still serving in office, like Schiff and Raskin. A pardon doesn’t mean they can’t still be impeached for their actions. Also, pardoning the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for actions he may have taken prior to the Biden administration is also concerning. I feel that soldiers, especially general officers, should have to answer for potential crimes they committed while in service. After every war, could a president simply pardon everyone that served in the conflict?
The pardons are a bit of a problem.
They protect those who committed some acts of lawfare or in one case treason which could carry the death penalty, although that would be unlikely.
But what it is… an admission of guilt.
Turley should have a busy week just covering today’s events and we’re not talking about his on-air commentary.
Those aren’t pardons, no matter the nomenclature. They are grants of immunity, which the Constitution does not permit Presidents to issue. That will be an easy case to make. I’d take it on a contingency fee.
Please do. Once one falls the rest are toast.
Merriam-Webster
pardon
noun
1: indulgence sense 4
2: the excusing of an offense without exacting a penalty
offered a pardon to the draft evader
3
a: a release from the legal penalties of an offense
b: an official warrant of remission of penalty
4: excuse or forgiveness for a fault, offense, or discourtesy
“THAT PARDON CLOSED THE DOOR TO ANY FUTURE PROSECUTION”
“The most famous American pardon was the blanket pardon given by President Gerald Ford to ex-President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation; that pardon closed the door to any future prosecu- tion against Nixon for any crime before the pardon.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
pardon
1) v. to use the executive power of a Governor or President to forgive a person convicted of a crime, thus removing any remaining penalties or punishments and preventing any new prosecution of the person for the crime for which the pardon was given. A pardon strikes the conviction from the books as if it had never occurred, and the convicted person is treated as innocent. Sometimes pardons are given to an older rehabilitated person long after the sentence has been served to clear his/her record. However, a pardon can also terminate a sentence and free a prisoner when the chief executive is convinced there is doubt about the guilt or fairness of the trial, the party is rehabilitated and has performed worthy public service, or there are humanitarian rea-sons such as terminal illness.
The most famous American pardon was the blanket pardon given by President Gerald Ford to ex-President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation; that pardon closed the door to any future prosecu- tion against Nixon for any crime before the pardon. A pardon is distinguished from “a commutation of sentence” which cuts short the term; “a reprieve,” which is a temporary halt to punishment, particularly the death penalty, pend- ing appeal or determination of whether the penalty should be reduced; “amnesty,” which is a blanket “forgetting” of possible criminal charges due to a change in public circumstances (such as the end of a war or the draft system); or a “reduction in sentence,” which shortens a sentence and can be granted by a judge or an executive.
– https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1443
Trump didn’t place his hand on the Bible when he was sworn in. Yikes! Does this mean he’s not being honest about taking the oath seriously?
How many of his Christian supporters will take offense? Is it a sign of the anti-Christ or did he just forget because he’s already getting senile?
Seem like from what Trump said in his inauguration address, is that You are out of a Job.
“… After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. …”
https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/012025_trump_address/transcript-trumps-2nd-inaugural-address/
“Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”
“And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
“As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do.”
Better pack your bags tonight, because the I.C.E. Bus will becoming for you in the morning to deport you back to wherever it is you came from.
Any of the Anonymous atheist communist Democrats here who claim Biden wasn’t actually a Christian as he fought every day for elective birth control abortions to be legal up to the point of birth?
Do atheist communist Democrats attempt to troll Christians (and normal Americans) by acting like they think the anti-Christ would?
And who would take serious an atheist communist cosplaying as having any knowledge or values concerning any version of Christianity.
Asking for sane Anonymous Democrats.
INCOHERENT INANITY AS A DELIBERATE VIOLATION OF THE CIVILITY RULE.
BAN FOR LIFE!
” Is it a sign of the anti-Christ”
Good question. Perhaps if he had put his hand on the Bible his hand would have started to smoke and burn.
* I checked old swearing oaths by Presidents and it’s been deleted. In each case the justice simply says raise your right hand.
They’ve deleted God from America. You’re correct. God was too discriminatory.
* are we clear? Old video of prior oaths have the Bible deleted.
You watched the hand on the Bible in old movies with courtroom scenes. Mandella effect.
You won’t remember God in a few generations. Don’t worry. 😉
“J-schools now teach that objectivity is a dated concept.”
– Professor Turley
_____________________
So-called J-schools have been teaching “that objectivity is a dated concept” since 1860, when J-schools and the “free press” must have called for Lincoln’s immediate impeachment and conviction for denial of the not prohibited and fully constitutional right of secession, for commencing an unconstitutional war, for unconstitutionally imposing martial law (i.e. South Korea is prosecuting its president for unconstitutionally imposing martial law at this writing), for unconstitutionally suspending habeas corpus, for confiscation of private property, for dereliction in enforcing legitimate existing immigration law, etc.
The American “free press” since that era has been precisely the organ of the nascent communists who supported “the revolution” and Lincoln’s positions on “labor,” aka “the dictatorship of the proletariat,” for which Karl Marx himself commended and congratulated Lincoln in his letter of 1865.
America and its J-schools were situated on a course toward the incremental implementation of the principles of communism, and J-schools have been incubators of communist theory, propaganda, and indoctrination since the outset.
______________________________________________________
Seoul, South Korea Reuters
“Hundreds of supporters of South Korea’s arrested president, Yoon Suk Yeol, stormed a court building early on Sunday after his detention was extended, smashing windows and breaking inside, an attack the country’s acting leader called ‘unimaginable.’
“Yoon on Wednesday became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested as he faces allegations of insurrection related to his stunning, short-lived December 3 declaration of martial law that has plunged the country into political turmoil.”
– CNN
_________
“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his first speech as an Illinois state legislator, 1837
_________________________________________________________________________________
“Everyone now is more or less a Socialist.”
– Charles Dana, managing editor of the New York Tribune, and Lincoln’s assistant secretary of war, 1848
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“The goal of Socialism is Communism.”
– Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
_________________________
“The workingmen of Europe…consider…that it fell to…Abraham Lincoln…to lead his country through…the RECONSTRUCTION of a social world.”
– Karl Marx Letter to Lincoln, 1865 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm
Where does George gather his inspiration and get his excuses for his weekly commie/fascist posts? Right there in the link he provides: Marxists.org
The only person George hates more than his nemesis and host Professor Turley is President Lincoln.
It’s the Democrat Rebel Confederate Constitutional Scholar in George – obsessed that Lincoln didn’t deport his fellow racist Democrats’ slaves born in America after freeing them.
And Lincoln’s sin? He allowed them jungle bunnies and their children to pollute the schools attended by the white pureblood children of later Senator Joe Biden.
The USSR spy who defected, Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov warned us about fraudulent “constitutionalist” commies like George, back when many of us were well into our work careers. That was before George was having his first Democrat wet dreams about Democrat heroes like George Wallace and his best friend young Senator Joe Biden.
George: At least sign an organ donor so we can hope you make some marginal contribution to this great country at some point in your otherwise meaningless failure of a life.
Yuri Bezmenov – A Brief Summary Of Communist Ideological Subversion As Used By American Communists Like George
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJnRmvqTdEQ
FULL INTERVIEW with Yuri Bezmenov: George’s Four Stages of Ideological Communist Subversion
Old Airborne
Love that Vanks and Melania went all black with their fits today. You know what they were saying. I know what they were saying…
Wonder how long before Baron gets into the act.
The Hamburglar called–he wants his hat back, even though it was used to mourn the death of American democracy.
Democracy, to gigenious, means “free stuff” and “free status” to losers, parasites, and leeches who failed in the merit category like gigenius.
Actual Americans in their American Republic enjoy freedom and self-reliance and persist on their own merit.
The Hamburglar called–he wants his hat back
Gigi, with her stunning fashion sense and personal facial appearance reminiscent of an extra from the Walking Dead series, has dropped her claim to be a lawyer to now claim she’s a fashion designer.
Lawn Boy exposes himself again
* She was supposed to look like a cartel person.
Here’s hoping DOJ ran a sweeping investigation of the open shakedown op the trump transition ran, then kicked the evidence to the states and quietly withdrew the OLC guidance against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Maybe he will just pardon himself and his family and any murderers who can pay big bucks and and whatever else, you know, for justice and transparency
Certainly Never News! Nothing more to say.
Washington DC’s biggest myths and mysteries debunked
Why are DC’s buildings so short? Why is J Street nowhere in sight? Join Robert Pohl, author of Urban Legends and Historic Lore of DC, on a tour of the US capital’s biggest myths and mysteries.
Video by: Ellenoor Shameli, filmed by Darryl Laiu ~ Jan 17th 2025
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0kkg3fv/washington-dc-s-biggest-myths-and-mysteries-debunked
Trump riffing at a mic currently, just waiting for the opportunity to suggest we all drink bleach and shine a lot on it.
Trump in rambling, insane remarks just post inauguration: “….let’s wait for the corruption to start, because it will.”
All hail our Dear Leader Donald J. Trump! All loyal subjects bow before our new Supreme leader. TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP!
* so you’re saying government is too big.
Hail to his Excellency DJT
Glorious Supreme Dear Divine Leader Kim Jong Un will deliver a love letter invite to DJT for a visit to Pyongyang, NK.
The problem with free speech is that you have to listen to someone else’s BS. That includes the wack jobs that post here.
Trump gives a peaceful inauguration speech. But is also as a lawman.
DJT is willing to walk away from a showdown. But some won’t back down.