Nick Sandmann, one of the Covington Catholic students, has filed suit against the Washington Post for $250 million.

Nick Sandmann (right) and Nathan Phillips. Reuters. 

Lawyers for Nick Sandmann, one of the Covington Catholic students, have filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Washington Post. Reuters. The lawsuit claims that Sandmann was wrongfully targeted and bullied by the paper in order to advance bias against President Donald Trump as Sandmann is one of his supporters. The Washington Post was one of many news outlets that claimed that Sandmann and others were racist and had harassed an American Indian activist, Nathan Phillips. However, video later showed that Sandmann had not said or done anything racist and Phillips had approached him. The video also showed that the Covington Catholic students were harassed by both the Black Hebrew Israelites, a black supremacist group, as well as members of Phillips group. Sandmann's lawyer, Lin Wood, said that other similar lawsuits against other news organizations are coming. 

My Comment:

Good news out of this case. What happened to Sandmann and the other Covington boys was a disgrace and I sincerely hope that he wins the $250 million in full. The Washington Post is one of many news outlets that pushed a lie about these boys and brought a major amount of harassment and danger for these boys. And it's very possible that the slander against Sandmann will last his entire life even after he has been vindicated. 

I think Sandmann has a good case. He wasn't a public figure and he was a kid so that means the libel/slander laws are a bit more loose. In America, our laws generally favor news outlets even when their behavior is reprehensible. Those laws are a lot more fair to plaintiffs when the people filing suit aren't public figures or are minors.

It's also clear that the Washington Post and other news outlets did not follow the guidelines of their profession. They did not wait to confirm any details of the story and did not interview the people involved in the case other than Nathan Philipps. They didn't talk to the Black Hebrew Israelites or the boys themselves but did contribute to the social media outrage against them. It was horrible behavior and they deserve to be punished for it. 

Unfortunately, The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, even after losing half of his wealth in his divorce. Even though the $250 million lawsuit is exactly what the paper was bought for by Bezos, and he overpaid, he has enough money to keep them afloat anyways. $250 million is a huge amount of money but it's not enough to put them out of business, which is what they deserve. 

This also means that the Post is going to have a team of experienced lawyers who will be experts in trying to delay and litigate this until Sandmann gives up. Normally they would use this strategy to drain the funds of the plaintiff but since Lin Wood has taken the case pro-bono, I doubt it will work. Still, given how complex this lawsuit is and the fact that many other companies and individuals are going to get sued as well, a settlement might happen. 

Other news outlets might not be so lucky. There are a lot of news outlets that aren't backed up by one of the richest men in the world. It's very possible that some of these smaller outlets could go out of business, like Gawker did when Hulk Hogan sued them. My sincere hope is that happens to some of these news outlets and to some of the celebrities and twitter blue checkmarks go bankrupt as well...