More legal good news
Those of you whose memories are still intact (I make no such claims and I should know – wife tells me I forget what she tells me daily. Heh, heh, heh.) may remember a young Navy vet named Zachary Young. You can get a refresher at Young, or at least remember that during the Afghan total capitulation and disgraceful Biden retreat evacuation, CNN did a fairly impressive job of mudslinging on him.
“Despite claiming it did ‘three weeks of newsgathering’ and ‘spoke with more than a dozen sources,’ Defendant’s representatives acknowledged it had no evidence that Young did anything criminal or illegal. Yet, Defendant used the Black Market Chyron.
“Defendant had no evidence of illegality and Young said he was not contracting with or taking money from individuals. Despite this, Defendant published his name and photograph as the poster child bad actor preying on Afghans,” he continued. “Accordingly, the record evidence could support a conclusion that Defendant aired and posted the Pieces knowing the gist was false or with reckless disregard as to whether the gist was false or not.”
In plain terms, Young alleges that CNN (what? No, not such a pillar of rectumtude rectitude) lied. Like a cheap rag rug on a much-walked floor. Like a racetrack tout pimping a slow horse. You know…lied.
Well, and of course, CNN isn’t taking an allegation like that lying down. They say Young is mistaken, and then tried this defense”
CNN’s legal team had argued that Young’s actions violated the Taliban’s Sharia law, but Judge Henry slapped down the notion he violated a law.
Maybe if they got the trial moved to Mogadishu North (you know, just west of St. Paul) they might have a chance with that. But not in Judge William Henry’s court.
“Framing these circumstances as a ‘debate’ between the Taliban rulers and the rest of the free world would be akin to saying it was debatable whether the Nazi extermination of the Jews at Auschwitz was wrong,” Judge Henry wrote.
“The fundamental problem with Defendant’s arguments is that they rely on its own proffered definition of ‘black market,’ which has been a moving target throughout this litigation, and ignore the potential that “black market” connotes illegality or criminality,” Judge Henry wrote.
It wasn’t a complete shutout for CNN’s legal team. Judge Henry agreed that Young’s company, Nemex Enterprises, Inc. would not be considered for damages.
If that ruling is supposed to be helpful, CNN better get its checkbook out and practice writing a lot of zeroes after the commas.
“One could say Marquardt (CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt – ed.) had his narrative that he wanted to portray (‘bad people preying on Afghans’). In fact, Marquardt’s initial pitches for the story between October 26-28, 2021, included the explosive phrases ‘price gouging,’ ‘extortion of desperate Afghans,’ ‘shadowy black market’ and then concluded that he wanted ‘to examine to what extent this is extortion or fraud.’ Then, fortuitously, a door was opened to obtain information for the piece when Young reached out to Lillis (CNN reporter Katie Bo Lillis – ed). Lillis cultivated this relationship, albeit in an underhanded manner by not disclosing Defendant’s reporters’ motivations or that they were going to use his identity,” Judge Henry wrote.
“Once Young stopped cooperating with the investigative reporters, Marquardt found his ‘fall guy’ – Young, despite the fact that Young did not check all the boxes. Nonetheless, Marquardt had the “face” of the bad guys to put on screen. Defendant had no evidence Young did anything illegal, yet it chose the Black Market Chyron and only highlighted him in the Segment,” he added.
The court already ruled that Young did nothing illegal or criminal. I’m liking the sound of how this one is going… if there is any justice in the world, Young may be becoming very, very rich. His target is $1,000,000,000… even after the attorneys get their piece, Young stands to come out pretty well, as he deserves.
Category: Afghanistan, Media
