How often have Americans screamed obscenities at their TV sets when they’ve seen, yet again, media lies, smears and obfuscation? How often have they fervently wished the media paid for their malicious manipulation of the public? In a defamation trial of CNN and Jake Tapper, CNN may end up paying a billion or more for just that, and it couldn’t happen to a worse network or talking head. It’s a story I covered not long ago here at AT.  

Graphic: CNN Screenshot

The story begins in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s handlers' shameful and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Not only did they leave billions of dollars of the most advanced military equipment on the planet to the Taliban, they left Americans, and Afghans who supported our troops, to the tender mercies of the Taliban. Zachary Young, a Navy veteran did his best to rescue them, and CNN responded as one might imagine:

Graphic: CNN Screenshot

CNN anchor Jake Tapper never apologized for airing a "devastating" report that falsely portrayed Navy veteran Zachary Young as an "illegal profiteer" operating in a "black market" during America's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Young testified Tuesday.

Young is suing CNN in a Florida court for $1 billion in damages. He argues that Tapper's November 2021 portrayal and an accompanying segment irreparably harmed his reputation and destroyed his contracting company, Nemex Enterprises, by airing false and defamatory claims about his efforts to get Afghans out of the country as the Taliban took control.

Young complained and months later, CNN issued a milquetoast correction:

CNN removed the term "black market" from the online version of its segment. The network also issued an on-air apology acknowledging Young had not broken any laws, but anchor Pamela Brown was filling in for Tapper that day.

"Did Mr. Tapper deliver that apology?" the plaintiff's lead attorney, Devin Freedman, asked.

"No, he never did," Young replied.

During his testimony, Young produced his 2018 contract with DynCorp. It included a clause indicating that he would be terminated without severance if he participated in a "black market" in his host country.

"It's hard to explain to someone outside my world how devastating" it is to be accused of operating in a black market, Young testified. "It's devastating when you're labeled a criminal all over the world."

Judge William Henry not only allowed the case to go forward and mandated discovery, he made clear to the jury Young never took money from Afghans and did not break the law.

"CNN felt they had a sensational story that would drive ratings and they didn't care about the truth," an attorney for Young, Kyle Roche, said during his opening statement Tuesday. "CNN chose theater over truth and destroyed the life of an American patriot."

He said Young helped 22 women evacuate Afghanistan on behalf of Audible and Bloomberg L.P.

"The facts didn't matter," Roche said. He noted that CNN's editors admitted in internal messages that the segment was "full of holes like Swiss cheese" and "80% emotion and 20% obscured fact."

For CNN, discovery has been a disaster:

 Henry ruled Thursday that, at trial, Young could use Tapper calling Fox News a "cancer on the democracy we have" and other disparaging remarks he made about the network in November 2023. He also ruled that Young's attorneys could present text messages that the veteran says will show that CNN employees had an agenda to smear him as a war profiteer. 

In one text exchange, CNN national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, the lead reporter on the Tapper segment, told colleagues he wanted to "nail this Zachary Young mfucker." CNN senior editor Fuzz Hogan called Young "a shit," according to messages turned over during discovery in the case.

Common media tactics include giving targets of their smears an impossibly short time to respond before airing their smears. In this case, Young told CNN their facts were wrong, they weren’t giving him enough time to review their reporting, and if they libeled him, he’d sue.

That sounds an awful lot like malice, necessary to prove defamation. CNN has also tried to claim it has no idea of its own finances, because it’s owned by Warner Bros.Discovery:

Essentially, Young wants the court to keep CNN from arguing its own finances to jurors in the event they lose the defamation case. [skip]

“WBD apparently manages all aspects of CNN’s cash flows,” the motion reads at one point. “It collects virtually all of CNN’s cash directly and immediately commingles it with cash generated by WBD’s other subsidiary business segments.”

That’s not going to work out as CNN imagines. It’s possible Young’s suit could be the blow that crushes CNN and forces the remaining networks to at least consider trying to turn honest. It’s about time.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.