CNN Defamation Trial Set To Start

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, many people were desperate to flee the country. CNN reported that a security consultant was among those offering to evacuate them — for a price — as part of an investigation into claims of "black market" rescue operations.

CNN's story, which aired on Nov. 11, 2021, showed a photo of Zachary Young, head of Florida-based Nemex Enterprises. The caption below warned of "exorbitant fees" and "no guarantee of safety or success." Chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt told viewers that CNN could not confirm that Young had successfully evacuated anyone who had paid him to leave the country.

Young has sued CNN for defamation. In his complaint, his attorneys say CNN gave him just hours to respond to its questions before it first aired that story on The Lead with Jake Tapper. They say Young had, in fact, successfully evacuated dozens of people from Afghanistan.

In rebutting those allegations in court, CNN has since cast doubt on Young's claim of the successful evacuations. Behind the scenes, however, some editors expressed qualms about the reporting, court filings show.

NPR reports the trial kicks off today in the Florida Panhandle, a deeply red part of the country, at a time when public perceptions of the media are increasingly ideologically polarized.

Young's attorneys say he is a logistics and security expert who helped U.S. and European corporations and nongovernmental organizations extract people from Afghanistan during a dangerous time. His lawsuit alleges that CNN unfairly implied on the air and online through a subsequent written story and social media posts that he was profiting from illegal tactics. And in his legal complaint, his lawyers write that Young's business has lost millions of dollars in revenues as a result of the hit to his reputation.

Four months after the initial broadcast, as Young's lawyers demanded a retraction, CNN offered a correction on Tapper's show. A substitute anchor told viewers that the term "black market" should not have been used in the story at all and that the network "did not intend to suggest that Mr. Young participated in a black market." The anchor, Pamela Brown, concluded by telling viewers: "We regret the error. And to Mr. Young, we apologize."

The TV version of the story was taken down.