I'm not making any judgment call on the legal specifics. But what the media did to this kid was extremely and knowingly dishonest, and he suffered for it. That's wrong, and he deserves justice.
Justice for what? Strangers thinking he's a jerk? It isn't like he was falsely accused of a crime.
CNN & WaPO settled with him, so they disagree, Doc.
Just because they settled doesn't make it defamation under the law. Sometimes entities settle just to make people go away.
These companies essentially called him a racist in front of the whole nation. It's kind of hard to get a job or go to college when the media smears you as a racist.
But you actually need proof of these things to win a defamation suit. There's not evidence he was denied college admission or jobs based on any of this. Very few defamation cases succeed specifically for lack of evidence of hardship.
In my line of work I know this all too well, but Doc, c'mon, the reports are they settled for millions. They weren't like 'hey kid here's some ice cream money, go away'. These giants could have easily weathered a trial if they had a decent leg to stand on.
They decided it would be cheaper to settle then fight and win. Always happens in corporate America. They might have been wrong.
