March 14, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The law firm representing Covington Catholic High School junior Nicholas Sandmann has released a new video arguing that their defamation suits against CNN and the Washington Post are not merely to restore Sandmann’s good name, but to prevent the mainstream media from eroding America’s social fabric.
Immediately following January’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., the press erupted with claims that a video showed boys from the Kentucky religious school harassing Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, outside the Lincoln Memorial. 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 members of the Black Hebrew Israelites fringe group shouted racial taunts at the kids.
As additional video came to light many journalists and other public figures quickly deleted their snap condemnations of the students, and last month an independent investigation commissioned by the Diocese of Covington (which had initially condemned the boys) cleared the students of wrongdoing.
Yet some have tried to keep it alive and others have refused to unequivocally retract and apologize for their original claims. So attorneys representing the students have threatened to sue numerous media figures and Phillips himself for defamation, with Sandmann’s attorneys filing a $250 million lawsuit against the Post, and an even larger suit against CNN.
On Wednesday, the law firm representing Sandmann, L. Lin Wood, P.C., released a video manifesto on the significance of their suits.
The Post and CNN “recklessly spread lies about a minor to advance their own financial and political agendas,” the video says. “Despite raw video debunking the false narrative, the Post and CNN doubled down on their reckless lies.”
It plays video of a CNN contributor expressing outrage that Sandmann “clearly doesn’t blame himself” and “puts the blame on the adult,” and left-wing pundit Bill Maher saying, “I blame that f***ing kid; what a little prick.”
“How long will we allow these media giants to tear the fabric of our lives to further their own agendas?” the narrator asks. “Will they ever be held accountable?”
“Yes, they will,” it continues, declaring that with these lawsuits Sandmann is standing not just for himself but “for you…Nicholas and his legal team will not be stopped until these Goliath corporations are held accountable for their lack of journalistic integrity. Until then, no one's reputation is safe.”
“If you took the time to look at the full context of what happened that day, Nicholas Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong,” attorney Lin Wood says in interview footage played at the end. “If they can get away with this against a 16-year-old boy, then we're all at risk. There has to be change.” The video closes with a #ReformOurMedia hashtag.
Last week, the Post issued an “editor’s note” acknowledging some inaccuracies in its original coverage, but without a formal retraction or apology. This attempt to “whitewash its wrongdoing” was “too little and too late,” Sandmann’s legal team responded. CNN has so far declined to comment.