Covington student Nick Sandmann settles lawsuit with CNN

(CNN video screenshots)

It would appear that CNN has finally admitted that it’s fake news …

In a settlement with Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, who along with his peers was smeared relentlessly by the media over the Lincoln Memorial incident early last year, on Tuesday the left-wing network agreed to pay the teen a certain amount for the reputational and punitive damages suffered.

While the exact amount that CNN has agreed to pay remains unknown, the fact remains that the left-wing network has agreed to pay — and by doing so has thus essentially admitted guilt.

Filed last March, the original $275 million suit against CNN accused the network of having “brought down the full force of its corporate power, influence, and wealth on Nicholas by falsely attacking, vilifying, and bullying him despite the fact that he was a minor child.”

Speaking with Fox News host Mark Levin at the time, Sandmann’s attorney Lin Wood of the law firm Hemmer DeFrank Wessels accused CNN of being “more vicious in its direct attacks” on his client than even The Washington Post.

“They really went after Nicholas with the idea that he was part of a mob that was attacking the Black Hebrew Israelites, yelling racist slurs at the Black Hebrew Israelites,” he said.

“Totally false, saying things like that that Nicholas was part of a group that was threatening the Black Hebrew Israelites, that they thought it was going to be a lynching. Now you say you’ve seen the tape. If you took the time to look at the full context of what happened that day, Nicholas Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong.”

After attending a pro-life rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18, 2019, Sandmann and his Covington Catholic peers tried congregating around the Lincoln Memorial to hang out but wound up being accosted by racist Black Hebrew Israelites.

Watch:

As the abuse unfolded, a shady Native American activist by the name of Nathan Phillips sought to intervene by marching up to the kids (versus the Black Hebrew Israelites who were harassing them) while banging on a drum.

Video footage from the scene showing a smiling Sandmann standing silently in front of Phillips as he played his drum quickly went viral across the Internet and was used to justify accusing the then-16-year-old teen and his peers of harassing the Native American. Almost every mainstream media network took part in the smear, including CNN.

After the real story emerged, the networks issued corrections but abstained from simply apologizing for their errors. In response, Sandmann sued, to which CNN in return responded two months later by filing a motion denying culpability for its smears.

“Each of 53 CNN statements identified in the Sandmann lawsuit should be dismissed for reasons such as that they are substantially true, do not concern Nick, are not defamatory or are subjective opinion, the motion states,” Cincinnati.com reported at the time.

It appears CNN has since had a change of heart, though it’s now attempting to downplay the relevance of it bending the knee.

“The settlement will allow CNN to avoid a lengthy and potentially unpredictable trial,” the outlet reported Tuesday evening, spinning the settlement as a cost- and time-sharing move versus one rooted in it accepting culpability.

The attempt to save face via a settlement seemed awfully similar to Iran’s attempt to save face by launching what it knew beforehand would be failed strikes.

With CNN now out of the way, Sandmann’s attorneys are slated to turn their attention toward NBC News and The Washington Post, both of which also face suits involving the Lincoln Memorial incident.

The lawsuit against the Post filed last February alleges that the paper “ignored basic journalist standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump … by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters.”

Five months later, a federal judge dismissed the entire suit, only to reverse some of his ruling this past October.

“[T]he Court has given this matter careful review and concludes that ‘justice requires’ that discovery be had regarding these statements and their context,” the judge ruled three months ago.

“The Court will adhere to its previous rulings as they pertain to these statements except Statements 10, 11, and 33, to the extent that these three statements state that plaintiff ‘blocked’ Nathan Phillips and ‘would not allow him to retreat.”

The original suit cited 33 false statements from the Post. In his October ruling, the judge reversed that ruling for three of the 33 statements.

NBCUniversal hasn’t been so fortunate. After being sued last May, it also attempted to have the suit dismissed. But in a ruling two months ago, a judge chose to allow the full suit to stand.

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