A Florida jury on Friday found CNN liable for defaming a Navy veteran who helped evacuate people from Afghanistan following President Biden’s disastrous exit from the country.
The case also revealed formerly confidential facts about CNN’s earnings — showing that CNN posted profits of $600 million in 2021, $300 million in 2022, and $400 million in 2023.
The records also showed that the ratings-challenged network has seen its revenue plunge $400 million, or 18%, over those three years.
The six-person jury took less than nine hours to render its stunning verdict after a two-week trial in Panama City state court.
The jury awarded $5 million to security contractor Zachary Young and punitive damages were being discussed when CNN reached an undisclosed settlement.
Louis G. Adolfsen, a defamation lawyer and founding member of the Melito & Adolfsen PC law firm in Manhattan, speculated that the settlement could be for as high as $25 million considering Panama City is a “rural or semi-rural” area where the jury pool is likely hostile to CNN.
“I analogize this to [President-elect Donald] Trump being sued in New York,” Adolfsen, whose past clientele included rockers the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Black Sabbath, told The Post.
Young blamed CNN for destroying his business by showing his face onscreen in a story about a “black market” smuggling out desperate Afghans for high fees as the Taliban retook control of the country.
He described suffering severe depression and panic attacks as a direct result of CNN’s alleged smear job. The military veteran also told the jury that the televised segment led to the loss of millions in potential income.
He argued that his business targeted sponsors who could afford to pay for Afghans to get out, not individual Afghans charged as much as $10,000 for the service.
While CNN said it was wrong to use the phrase “black market,” it contended that its reporting on Young was accurate.
At the trial located in a conservative part of the country, Young’s lawyers urged jurors to send a message to the media. Questions submitted by jurors during the trial telegraphed some hostility, with one wondering whether CNN had treated the plaintiff as guilty until proven innocent.
Private messages also became part of the trial, with plaintiffs showing internal messages where CNN’s reporter, Alex Marquardt, said some profane and unflattering things about Young. Marquardt testified in the trial that his story “was not a hit piece.”
“We remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case,” a CNN spokesperson told The Post after the verdict.
Defamation trials are rare in the US, in part because strong constitutional protections for the press make proving libel difficult. From the media’s standpoint, taking a case to a judge or jury is a risk many executives don’t want to take.
Rather than defend statements that George Stephanopoulos made about Trump last spring, ABC News last month agreed to make the former president’s libel lawsuit go away by paying him $15 million toward his presidential library and another $1 million in lawyers’ fees.
In the end, ABC parent Walt Disney concluded an ongoing fight against Trump wasn’t worth it, win or lose.
