NBCUniversal is facing a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit filed by attorneys for Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, alleges that the network “published false and defamatory accusations” about the 16-year-old and created a “false narrative” driven by its “anti-Trump agenda.”
“NBCUniversal attacked Nicholas by relying heavily on biased and unreliable sources without conducting any reasonable investigation of the circumstances surrounding the January 18 incident,” the complaint read, referring to the encounter between the high school student and Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial.
Sandmann’s attorneys, L. Lin Wood of Atlanta and Todd V. McMurtry of Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, announced the $275 million lawsuit on Twitter Wednesday.
Today, Nicholas Sandmann sued NBC & MSNBC for defamation in federal court in Kentucky seeking accountability for false accusations. Nicholas did not instigate a hate crime or engage in racist conduct. Complaint available @ToddMcMurtry. #ReformOurMedia
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) May 1, 2019
“NBCUniversal created a false narrative by portraying the ‘confrontation’ as a ‘hate crime’ committed by Nicholas,” the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, read, alleging that Sandmann was “an easy target for NBCUniversal to advance its anti-Trump agenda because he was a 16-year-old white, Catholic student who had attended the Right to Life March that day and was wearing a MAGA cap at the time of the incident which he had purchased earlier in the day as a souvenir.”
Today, @LLinWood and I filed a $275,000,000 lawsuit against NBCUniversal on behalf of Nicholas Sandmann. The facts of the suit show the anti-Trump narrative NBC pushed so hard. Here is a link if you wish to read it: https://t.co/X6v4HBqxXk pic.twitter.com/jcRTnWh5hl
— Todd V. McMurtry (@ToddMcMurtry) May 1, 2019
Left wing activists and media outlets distorted events that unfolded that day, portraying the student along with his classmates as instigators in the confrontation, and alleging that Phillips was taunted by the teens. But full video of the incident revealed a different story with the teenagers being the ones approached by Phillips and also harassed by a group of “Black Hebrew Israelite” protesters.
The March for Life and the Covington Diocese, among others, issued apologies after initial condemnations of Sandmann and the other teens. Lawsuits against the Washington Post for $250 million and CNN for $275 million were also filed by Sandmann’s attorneys.
The new lawsuit targeted NBCUniversal, via its news outlets NBC and MSNBC, because it “unleashed its vast corporate wealth, influence, and power against Nicholas to falsely attack him despite the fact that at the time, he was a 16-year-old high school student.”
“NBCUniversal’s attacks on Nicholas included at least fifteen (15) defamatory television broadcasts, six (6) defamatory online articles, and many tweets falsely accusing Nicholas and his Covington Catholic High School (“CovCath”) classmates of racists acts, including among other things,” the complaint read.
The network’s news outlets ran several stories which reflected negatively on the teen, touting headlines such as, “Nathan Phillips, Native American man harassed by high schoolers, tells his story,” and “Video of teens taunting man at Indigenous Peoples March sparks outrage.”
“NBC Universal continued to promote its false narrative that Nicholas had instigated a racist confrontation with Phillips long after Phillips was exposed as a fraud whose version of events was not entitled to any credibility by responsible members of the media,” the lawsuit read.
Earlier this year, Sandmann’s attorneys had warned that more lawsuits would be coming after announcing the $250 million suit against the Washington Post, stating “This is only the beginning.”
“The Post ignored basic journalist standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump (‘the President’) by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the President,” the lawsuit alleged, accusing the paper of ” targeting and bullying” Sandmann.
“Go get them Nick,” President Trump tweeted in response to news about the Post lawsuit.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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