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LEXINGTON, Kentucky (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman threw out Nick Sandmann’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Gannett Co. Inc., and Rolling Stone on Wednesday.
The judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled that media reports claiming Sandmann “blocked” Nathan Phillips, a Native American rights activist, at a confrontation that took place at the Lincoln Memorial at the 2019 March for Life in Washington was protected speech.
Bertelsman stated that he ruled based on Phillips’ testimony of the incident published by the outlets, holding that such actions would be “objectively unverifiable and thus unactionable opinions.”
“Instead, a reasonable reader would understand that Phillips was simply conveying his view of the situation,” Bertelsman said. “And because the reader knew from the articles that this encounter occurred at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, he or she would know that the confrontation occurred in the expansive area such that it would be difficult to know what might constitute ‘blocking’ another person in that setting.”
“The media defendants were covering a matter of great public interest, and they reported Phillips’s first-person view of what he experienced. This would put the reader on notice that Phillips was simply giving his perspective on the incident,” Bertelsman continued.
“Phillips’ statement did not imply the existence of any nondisclosed defamatory facts, and only under such circumstances does a statement of opinion lose its constitutional protection,” Bertelsman concluded. “Therefore, in the factual context of this case, Phillips’ ‘blocking’ statements are protected opinions.”
Todd McMurty, Sandmann’s attorney, said that he was “disappointed” in the ruling and plans to appeal. “We’re fully prepared to argue these cases at the 6th Circuit,” Sandmann said, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
UPDATE AUGUST 29, 2022 — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admits to Joe Rogan that the FBI was interested in supressing the Hunter Biden Laptop story!
If you are not aware of the foreign security threats implicated in the "Hunter Biden Laptop Story" — and what they might mean for America's national security and foreign geopolitical affairs — that’s by design.
You were never meant to discover the contents compromising President Joe Biden, and for good reason. The mainstream media kept you ignorant on purpose.
Washington Post roasted for acknowledging Hunter Biden scandal once called 'fake': 'Retroactive Pulitzer?'https://t.co/5mCc5w51xs
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 30, 2022
The Hunter Biden laptop was real, of course. The NYT buries its confirmation of the story in paragraph 27. https://t.co/be9cPkXsKF
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 17, 2022
In fact, the New York Post was censored by Twitter, Facebook, and all of Big Tech for even breaking the story that Hunter Biden’s laptop existed.
CNN, MSNBC dismissed Hunter Biden’s laptop as ‘Russian disinformation’ until liberal narrative was deflatedhttps://t.co/NwYPMEZ73u
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 6, 2022
The New York Times, Washington Post, and the entire mainstream media called any reference to the story “Russian disinformation."
THAT’S WHY AMERICA MUST INSIST THAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BIDEN FAMILY AND THE CONTENTS OF HUNTER’S LAPTOP!
SIGN: Tell the Mainstream Media that viewers demand transparency on the Bidens NOW!
Enough is enough — America refuses to be kept wondering about our compromised national security, corrupt sweetheart business deals, and pay-to-play schemes detailed in the Hunter Biden Laptop.
LIFESITENEWS EXPOSED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY HERE
“Polling taken in April shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the president has been compromised by his family’s shady business dealings with China,” LifeSiteNews reported on July 1, 2022.
Even CNN has finally begun to admit that the Hunter Biden Laptop is a serious problem:
- Illegal gun purchase
- Sweetheart foreign Ukraine deals
- Political access to (then) Vice-President Joe Biden
- Federal probes and investigations
Voters MUST know for whom they are voting. Sound the alarm with our new petition! SIGN TODAY!
The First Amendments protects a Free Press to report the truth and protect the American people — but the mainstream media has betrayed its viewers, spinning pro-communist and pro-globalist narratives that are HURTING voters!
Voters MUST learn about President Joe Biden’s compromised business dealings with China, Russia, Ukraine, and so many others — all pointing to the Hunter Biden Laptop.
DEMAND THE TRUTH: WE WILL NO LONGER BE MISLED BY THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA!
Media executives must learn that their viewership will continue tanking as long as executives run cover for their far-left base.
Tell media executives that you will NO LONGER watch or trust their network until they fully reveal the contents of the Hunter Biden Laptop!
It is not enough to simply change the channel. We must leave a parting shot to mainstream media executives telling them WHY consumers are refusing to watch any longer.
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This is the only way to save the future of the media and win back a trustworthy Free Press for future generations.
There is no telling what the mainstream media will continue to hide, deny, and deflect if they decide to run cover for the most powerful man in the world — the President of the United States.
*** There is no time to lose—we refuse to let important information remain hidden from the American voters any longer! ***
The Hunter Biden Laptop story is the single greatest piece of evidence indicating that America’s national security is likely compromised.
We the People deserve to know the truth!
STAND WITH THE PEOPLE: SIGN OUR PETITION ASAP!
____
NY Post: photo from the Hunter Biden Laptop
Flickr: Officia do Palácio do Planalto. CC BY 2.0.
Photos combined.
Sandmann got into a confrontation with Phillips at the March for Life in 2019. A video surfaced of Sandmann smiling while Phillips, who attended the Indigenous People’s March earlier that day, apparently chanted war chants and beat a drum. Mainstream media outlets reported that Sandmann and a group of other students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky surrounded Phillips and attempted to intimidate him.
But additional extended video and firsthand accounts soon revealed that Phillips was the one who waded into the group waiting for its bus and decided to beat a drum inches from Sandmann’s face while the boys performed school cheers in hopes of drowning out racist taunts from members of the Black Hebrew Israelites fringe group.
Many journalists and other public figures quickly deleted their snap condemnations of the students, and some have either tried to keep the original narrative alive or refused to unequivocally retract or apologize for their initial claims, leading to various lawsuits on behalf of the boys.
Sandmann filed lawsuits against eight media outlets for defamation because of their reporting. He settled $250 million lawsuits against CNN and The Washington Post in 2020 for an undisclosed payout. Sandmann later settled a lawsuit against NBC for their coverage of the incident.
Bertelsman previously threw out Sandmann’s lawsuit against the Post, yet he later reversed his ruling.
Other Covington students that attended the March for Life in 2019 have filed complaints dealing with the incident, targeting members of the media and several Democratic lawmakers.
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