CNN settles with Covington Catholic student

A Covington Catholic High School student will receive an undisclosed sum from CNN for the way it portrayed a confrontation involving him, his classmates, and a Native American elder outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in January 2019. The news channel on Tuesday settled the defamation lawsuit brought by Nicholas Sandmann over its misleading coverage of him following last year’s March for Life.

What really happened? The lawsuit accused CNN of targeting Sandmann due to reporters’ bias against supporters of President Donald Trump. The news channel “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,” the suit stated. Several media outlets painted the students as disrespectful and racist due to a short video clip of a tense interaction between Sandmann, wearing a Make America Great Again cap, and Nathan Phillips, the Native American elder. A longer video added context and revealed that the students were being harassed by Phillips and a group of Black Hebrew Israelites, leading them to respond with school chants. Sandmann and his family also sued NBC Universal and The Washington Post for their coverage of the confrontation.

Dig deeper: Read Megan Basham’s rebuke of “blue-check believers” who were quick to condemn Sandmann on social media. It was the eighth best-read article on WORLD’s website in 2019.