A jury in Florida on Friday ordered CNN to pay $5 million for defaming a private security contractor in a five-minute segment that ran on the network in November 2021.
CNN settled the lawsuit hours later for an undisclosed amount, before the jury had a chance to award additional damages in the case. Those damages could have been much higher than the initial amount awarded by the jury.
News organizations face an increasingly unfavorable legal and political environment. There are robust First Amendment protections for journalists, and plaintiffs in defamation cases must prove that a news outlet published false information despite knowing the information was wrong.
But public opinion has turned sharply against news organizations, just as the financial constraints of the industry's business model have made it harder to fend off lawsuits. ABC News surprised industry observers last month when it agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation claim by newly elected President Donald J. Trump.
“We remain proud of our journalists and are 100 percent committed to strong, fearless and fair reporting at CNN,” a network spokeswoman said in a statement, “although we will of course learn whatever useful lessons we can from this case to fetch.”
The CNN case concluded after a two-week trial in a Panama City, Florida, courtroom, where lawyers for the contractor, Zachary Young, argued that the network had falsely accused him of illegally participating in a “black market” for exfiltration services. in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of American troops.
The segment, narrated by correspondent Alexander Marquardt, focused on contractors who, the network said, charged exorbitant fees to evacuate Afghans.
Mr. Young, a Navy veteran, filed his lawsuit in 2022. He was the only contractor mentioned by name in the segment, which he said ruined his reputation and hurt his business. Mr. Young said he provided his services to large companies seeking to help workers in Afghanistan, and that his prices were fair.
The trial included testimony from Mr. Marquardt, who was confronted with internal CNN communications, revealed as part of the lawsuit, that showed him mocking Mr. Young in front of colleagues. At one point he wrote, “We're going to get this Zachary Young,” and referred to him with a curse word. Other reports showed some CNN employees calling the report “flawed.”
“It wasn't a hit, I don't do hit pieces,” Mr. Marquardt testified. The correspondent said he was following the facts in his reporting and had learned “unsavory” details about Mr. Young's business practices.
CNN argued that its report, which aired during an episode of “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” did not allege anything untrue about Mr. Young. In 2022, the network removed the segment from its website and said it regretted the use of the term “black market”, arguing that the phrase was intended to refer to unregulated activities, and not unlawful activities.
Lawyers for the network said the journalists had done their best in good faith to provide an accurate report, and that they were trying to draw attention to the plight of Afghans trying to flee a chaotic and violent situation.
The trial's location, in a Florida county where Mr. Trump won about three-quarters of the vote in 2024, was seen as a disadvantage for CNN, whose reporting has been vilified by Mr. Trump and his supporters. Trump's lawsuit against ABC, which was ultimately settled, was also filed in Florida.
“Libel law is becoming an increasingly serious concern, including for traditional mainstream media,” said Eugene Volokh, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution who studies First Amendment law. He said the rise of hyper-politicized news channels and uncontrolled social media had affected public perception of the industry.
Among the judges, he added, “I think there is a feeling that the media is a lot less cautious today than it used to be.”
