CNN agreed Tuesday to settle a lawsuit with Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann. The amount of the settlement was not made public during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Covington, Kentucky.
From Fox News:
Sandmann was swept up in a controversy after a video clip depicted the “MAGA” hat-wearing student smiling at Native American Nathan Phillips, who was beating a drum and singing a chant as he was surrounded by Sandmann’s peers, who had joined in on the chant in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
However, several mainstream media outlets — including CNN — portrayed the incident with Sandmann and the other teens as being racially charged before additional footage surfaced and showed that a group of Black Hebrew Israelites had provoked the confrontation by slinging racial slurs at the students.
WATCH: If you’re unable to view the video below follow this link.
CNN’s decision to settle a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann is a big victory for the “little guy,” Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson told Fox News.
“It represents a rare example of a ‘little guy’ being able to stand up to a media behemoth,” said Jacobson, the founder of the law blog Legal Insurrection and former senior editor of the Harvard International Law Journal.
Jacobson said the $250 million defamation suit was probably settled for at least seven figures but doesn’t expect the exact figure to ever be made public.
“The settlement amount is confidential, but likely was in the millions given the intrusive nature of discovery Sandmann’s attorneys would have into the CNN newsmaking process, and the cost of continued defense,” he said.