by Thinus Ferreira
A jury in in the United States has found Warner Bros. Discovery's CNN (DStv 401) guilty in a defamation trial and ordered it to pay $5 million to the security consultant Zachary Young who was defamed in an Afghan refugee story by CNN reporter Alex Marquardt who said in a message "We gonna nail this Zachary Young motherf-cker".
After the verdict by a jury in Florida, CNN quickly reached a settlement to end the case before the jury members in the case could calculate punitive damages which would very likely have forced CNN to pay Zachary Young further millions in the defamation trial.
In a statement CNN said "We remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case".
In 2021 CNN did a report by Alex Marquardt on the exorbitant fees being asked on the black market to evacuate Afghans during the chaotic and sudden withdrawal from the United States from that country.
The jury awarded $4 million in damages related to Zachary Young’s loss of earning potential and another $1 million for pain and suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience and injury to reputation.
During the trial, nasty CNN work text messages were revealed to the jurors like Alex Marquardt who wrote to another CNN staffer "We gonna nail this Zachary Young motherf-cker".
Another CNN worker wrote that Zachar Young had "a punchable face".
