Here’s the Total Amount of CNN’s Coverage on Defamation Verdict & Settlement Against Them Since Yesterday

Zachary Young at Defamation Verdict, Screenshot via Law & Crime

CNN has virtually ignored a Friday jury verdict that found it defamed Navy veteran Zachary Young in a 2021 report while also ordering the network to pay him $5 million in compensatory damages.

The case, the verdict, and an afternoon settlement with Young have been reported on by much of the news media, and especially its cable news rival Fox News.

However, a review of CNN’s and transcripts from the time the verdict was announced on Friday afternoon until the time of this article reveals the case and its outcome has been completely absent on air.

In fact, it appears CNN only covered the story at all via a single 116-word report on its website that reads, in its entirety:

CNN settled a lawsuit brought by a US Navy veteran over a 2021 segment on evacuations in Afghanistan on Friday, hours after a jury found the network liable for defaming him.

The two-week trial was held in Bay County, Florida. A jury awarded the veteran, Zachary Young, $5 million in compensatory damages.

Following the verdict, the two parties settled the case as the punitive damages phase was underway. The details of the settlement were not made public.

“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,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement.

The above reporting from CNN’s Hadas Gold was initially published with only two paragraphs. CNN’s multiple X accounts and its accounts on other social media networks did not share the report.

Mediaite uses software programs that can quickly pull any word or phrase said on American television at any given time – SnapStream and TVEyes.

A search of CNN’s on-air transcripts for keywords such as “defamation,” “Zachary Young,” “Afghanistan,” or the dollar amounts, and to include synonyms and variations of tense showed no results via any method. None of the keywords typed into either program revealed CNN had mentioned the outcome of its civil trial with Young.

CNN did mention the defamation lawsuit filed by Justin Baldoni against actress Blake Lively but no mentions of their defamation suit came up in any of the transcript searches.

Young sued when CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt reported about a black market operation to smuggle people out of Afghanistan in 2021 when the Taliban took control of the country. Young was identified as being responsible for charging outrageous fees to rescue people and contended the report was false.

He sued, alleging CNN had made him “permanently unemployable.”

CNN told Mediaite in a Friday statement: “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.”

Mediaite reached out to CNN on Saturday about its reporting on the outcome of Young’s lawsuit, which concluded with the network and Young reaching a private agreement before jurors could award the veteran punitive damages.

We last noted the total coverage on a network of a lawsuit against that network when observing the mentions of Fox News being sued by Dominion. At that time, Fox News did in fact cover the verdict on the network, not just their website.