CNN Accused Of Misleading Court In Defamation Case

CNN is being accused of withholding key pieces of financial information in a defamation lawsuit filed by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, who says the network destroyed his reputation and business.

The case stems from a 2021 segment aired on Jake Tapper’s show about Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Young, who founded the security consulting company Nemex Enterprises Inc., alleges that CNN falsely portrayed his business as exploiting desperate Afghans by charging exorbitant fees to flee the country.

Young says the fallout from the segment destroyed his reputation and drove his company to ruin. The trial for his case against CNN is scheduled for January 6, 2025, in Bay County, Florida, and could mark a pivotal moment for media accountability. 

The Tapper report began with him introducing a segment about the “black market” of services assisting Afghans trying to escape Afghanistan. Correspondent Alex Marquardt followed up with allegations that Young’s company charged $75,000 for a vehicle and $14,500 per person to transport individuals to safety. Young disputes all these claims and accused CNN of intentionally misrepresenting his operations. 

Proving that they learned nothing from the Covington Catholic debacle, Court documents revealed internal CNN communications raising doubts about the accuracy of their own story. Some messages described it as a “mess,” while others called it “incomplete” and “full of holes like swiss cheese.” They ran the story anyway despite those comments.

According to Fox:

In September, Florida Judge William Henry ordered CNN to comply with a subpoena to provide additional financial information that the cable network presented to its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

Although CNN claimed it would present these files, documents obtained by Fox News Digital found that "Plaintiffs learned that CNN never intended to produce documents showing assets and liabilities (because they don’t exist)."

"Not only did CNN and WBD fail to provide any of the promised documents identifying assets and liabilities, but CNN’s representative also failed to supply any information about the net worth number CNN provided (but disclaimed) in its interrogatory response. Indeed, CNN’s corporate representative did not provide any information about net worth at all, even though net worth was one of the noticed topics—indeed the main topic," they read.

Back in August, WBD wrote down the value of its traditional TV networks acquired in 2022, primarily CNN and TNT, by $9.1 billion.

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