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[W:270]First of many Covington lawsutis: Washington Post $250 million.

Fishking

Fishking

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This is just the start of the lawsuits. The $250 million is what Bezos bought the whole company for. I hope the media outlets all get hammered hard for this and they finally stop being such irresponsible hit-jobs of yellow page media trash. It needs to cut deep.

Teen in Lincoln Memorial protest sues Washington Post for $250 million | Reuters

(Reuters) - A high school student from Covington, Kentucky, sued the Washington Post for defamation on Tuesday, claiming the newspaper falsely accused him of racist acts and instigating a confrontation with a Native American activist in a January videotaped incident at the Lincoln Memorial.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky by Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, 16, seeks $250 million in damages, the amount that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and the world’s richest person, paid for the Post in 2013.

The lawsuit claims that the newspaper “wrongfully targeted and bullied” the teen to advance its bias against President Donald Trump because Sandmann is a white Catholic who wore a Make America Great Again souvenir cap on a school field trip to the March for Life anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18.
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Fishking said:
This is just the start of the lawsuits. The $250 million is what Bezos bought the whole company for. I hope the media outlets all get hammered hard for this and they finally stop being such irresponsible hit-jobs of yellow page media trash. It needs to cut deep.

Teen in Lincoln Memorial protest sues Washington Post for $250 million | Reuters
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And it will be just the start of the lawsuits that get dismissed.

The rather laughable conceit that he was defamed will have an incredibly short legal half life.
 
Fishking said:
This is just the start of the lawsuits. The $250 million is what Bezos bought the whole company for. I hope the media outlets all get hammered hard for this and they finally stop being such irresponsible hit-jobs of yellow page media trash. It needs to cut deep.

Teen in Lincoln Memorial protest sues Washington Post for $250 million | Reuters
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I think the paper will settle for a pile of money. Then the boy's lawyer will select the next target.

They'll eventually get around to that Indian guy, even though he doesn't have any money.

When all is said and done, that kid will be well compensated for the disruption to his life.
 
Go big or go home. 250 million-outrageous, but it is standard now.
 
Nap said:
I'm curious, as a lawyer how much of a case do you think they have with these lawsuits?
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hard to say because he is going to have to prove damages which-given he is not employed, is going to be rather speculative. I would give it less than a 25% chance of it getting to a jury.
 
Saladin4 said:
Those creeps aren't going to get a penny
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What do you hate the most about the Covington student

His race
his Religion
or that he was wearing a MAGA hat. Calling him a creep seems rather hateful given the evidence strongly suggests he did nothing OBJECTIVELY wrong?
 
TurtleDude said:
What do you hate the most about the Covington student

His race
his Religion
or that he was wearing a MAGA hat. Calling him a creep seems rather hateful given the evidence strongly suggests he did nothing OBJECTIVELY wrong?
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I don't hate the Covington student. I also don't hate David Hogg. I think both have been mistreated in similar ways, but I don't think either deserve million dollar settlements.
 
JMR said:
I don't hate the Covington student. I also don't hate David Hogg. I think both have been mistreated in similar ways, but I don't think either deserve million dollar settlements.
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Hogg actively sought the limelight: this CC student-not so much
 
TurtleDude said:
hard to say because he is going to have to prove damages which-given he is not employed, is going to be rather speculative. I would give it less than a 25% chance of it getting to a jury.
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What about emotional suffering? The death threats, and calls for violence should suffice. Off the top of my head, one writer from SNL offered to 'blow' the first man who found Nicholas Sandmann, and punched him in the face. Trevor Noah stated that Sandmann had 'a face you'd just like to smash', even after he knew the story was cooked by media sources. Get these boys their millions councilor.
 
truthatallcost said:
What about emotional suffering? The death threats, and calls for violence should suffice. Off the top of my head, one writer from SNL offered to 'blow' the first man who found Nicholas Sandmann, and punched him in the face. Trevor Noah stated that Sandmann had 'a face you'd just like to smash', even after he knew the story was cooked by media sources. Get these boys their millions councilor.
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1) those are other actors who engaged in the death threats.

2) Millions?

I like the suggestion of Cincinnati (once in Chicago) Talk show host Mike McConnell when it comes to jury verdicts

If lots of people are willing to undergo the "damage" in order to collect what the victim was awarded, then the verdict is too large. If no one would, then perhaps the verdict is too small
 
TurtleDude said:
hard to say because he is going to have to prove damages which-given he is not employed, is going to be rather speculative. I would give it less than a 25% chance of it getting to a jury.
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Was hoping they would win at least a couple, particularly against major news organizations. Would be nice to give them something to think about before putting out BS stories without even bothering to fact check it.
 
Fishking said:
This is just the start of the lawsuits. The $250 million is what Bezos bought the whole company for. I hope the media outlets all get hammered hard for this and they finally stop being such irresponsible hit-jobs of yellow page media trash. It needs to cut deep.

Teen in Lincoln Memorial protest sues Washington Post for $250 million | Reuters
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Well, hopefully they are compensated. However, because of what I consider to be the ridiculously wrongly-decided case of New York Times vs. Sullivan, the press practically has a license to slander and destroy others' good character with little consequence. I do not think these kids will prevail.
 
TurtleDude said:
What do you hate the most about the Covington student

His race
his Religion
or that he was wearing a MAGA hat. Calling him a creep seems rather hateful given the evidence strongly suggests he did nothing OBJECTIVELY wrong?
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The creeps taunted the native american, refused to apologize citing their white privilege...They don't deserve a dime
 
Saladin4 said:
The creeps taunted the native american, refused to apologize citing their white privilege...They don't deserve a dime
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You're lying. And I don't know if they deserve damages from the paper until I see more facts.
 
TurtleDude said:
What do you hate the most about the Covington student

His race
his Religion
or that he was wearing a MAGA hat. Calling him a creep seems rather hateful given the evidence strongly suggests he did nothing OBJECTIVELY wrong?
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The fight came to the school kids, and they handled it much better than I would have at 16. The paper (s) will probably settle rather than take that 25% shot you suggest.
 
jimbo said:
The fight came to the school kids, and they handled it much better than I would have at 16. The paper (s) will probably settle rather than take that 25% shot you suggest.
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Reasoned speculation on your part. I think there is merit to your prediction
 
Saladin4 said:
The creeps taunted the native american, refused to apologize citing their white privilege...They don't deserve a dime
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No they didn't. None of what you say is remotely true.
 
TurtleDude said:
You're lying. And I don't know if they deserve damages from the paper until I see more facts.
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I think they should get SOME compensation. If nothing else there was emotional damage. Fear of life type. Something that the media was directly responsible for due to how they handled the whole affair. Probably not 250 million. But should be a few million at least due to my belief that this needs to hurt and not just be a slap on the pinky. The media needs to correct its behavior and that's only going to happen when their bottom line is affected.
 
Kal'Stang said:
I think they should get SOME compensation. If nothing else there was emotional damage. Fear of life type. Something that the media was directly responsible for due to how they handled the whole affair. Probably not 250 million. But should be a few million at least due to my belief that this needs to hurt and not just be a slap on the pinky. The media needs to correct its behavior and that's only going to happen when their bottom line is affected.
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I agree-there is a difference between what I think SHOULD happen and what I think WILL happen
 
Felis Leo said:
Well, hopefully they are compensated. However, because of what I consider to be the ridiculously wrongly-decided case of New York Times vs. Sullivan, the press practically has a license to slander and destroy others' good character with little consequence. I do not think these kids will prevail.
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NYT v Sullivan is specifically & exclusively concerning reporting against government (officials). It has nothing to do with non-government civilians.
 
TurtleDude said:
hard to say because he is going to have to prove damages which-given he is not employed, is going to be rather speculative. I would give it less than a 25% chance of it getting to a jury.
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They did also have schools canceled, the death threats already mentioned here, calls for all students from their schools to be denied entry into any reputable college, etc. The last one is speculative and can be tossed out, but it speaks to an overall attitude of hate being dumped on the victims. I think a well-spoken attorney could paint quite a picture of damages. A lot of the bigger names out there are chomping at the bit to get their name on these suits, too.

Likely, these suits will get settled. Better PR to have it dropped, buried and move on than risk even a small chance of getting a punitive verdict. My guess would be that part of the extreme amount is because they expect this to go quickly to settlement talks and want to start the negotiations high. There's no way WaPo comes out looking good continuing to fight these boys, even if they did win the court battle.
 
Chomsky said:
NYT v Sullivan is specifically & exclusively concerning reporting against government (officials). It has nothing to do with non-government civilians.
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You are correct, Chomsky. I should have said New York Times vs. Sullivan and its unholy progeny, the case law that essentially gave the news media nigh-immunity from people from being able to seek redress after being subject to widespread public defamation by ostensible fact-seeking media outlets, whether they held the highest public office or were just lowly private citizens.
 
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