The Tapper-CNN/Maddow Lawsuits and the Dying Mainstream Media

By Selwyn Duke

The mainstream media may, collectively, be the most dangerous single worldly enemy our country faces. After all, it once was virtually all Americans’ only conduit of information and still serves that function for many. It’s as with a computer, too: garbage in, garbage out. And this lamentation is, essentially, what commentator Mike McDaniel issued in a recent article — in different words.

“To be sure, the media isn’t entirely responsible for the sad state of our representative republic,” he wrote. But “their contribution to our current tribulations is enormous and destructive.”

Oh, and garbage, masquerading as news, is at issue. As Elon Musk put it on X Monday:

Very common mistake to believe that the legacy media only lies about areas that you understand well.

No, they lie about everything.

When Lying Is a Double-edged Sword

Just occasionally, however, the mainstream media (MM) receive a comeuppance. This happened, for example, when CNN, The Washington Post, and NBC had to pay substantial defamation settlements to ex-Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann. And now, apparently, CNN has again flown too close to the Sun of actionable prevarication. As McDaniel reports:

Normally, the media is pretty much invulnerable to lawsuits for their reckless, D/s/c [Democrat/socialist/communist] opinions badly disguised as news, but amazingly, Tapper and CNN face a defamation suit brought by Navy veteran Zachary young. Tapper’s false claims about Young and his efforts to rescue innocents from Joe Biden’s Afghanistan debacle obliterated Young’s private security career. The suit has been allowed to proceed, and is in the deposition stage. Tapper and CNN are stonewalling….

McDaniel then quotes The Washington Free Beacon:

Tapper sat for a sworn deposition on Wednesday with lawyers for the veteran, Zachary Young, according to court documents obtained by the Media Research Center…. [A] description of the ordeal from Young’s attorneys states that, over the course of “less than two hours,” CNN “directed Tapper not to answer more than thirty questions.” As a result, Young’s attorneys could not gather “basic financial information” about Tapper’s salary and “the finances of CNN and his show.”

Tapper claimed ignorance of CNN’s finances, an assertion the judge in the case, William Scott Henry, rejected. As McDaniel points out, overpaid media figures such as Tapper would know their employer’s finances well. This information is, after all, necessary when negotiating their contracts.

Take No Prisoners

But it gets worse still for CNN. Young demands perhaps more than $1 billion in damages (yes, with a “b”) and, unlike Sandmann, is unwilling to settle. This means that the trial, scheduled for January, will likely proceed. McDaniel points out, too, that the issues in the case are clear. The Beacon again:

That segment [in which Tapper made the claims] named Young’s security company, Nemex Enterprises, and detailed its work evacuating people from Afghanistan during the Biden-Harris administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal. It implied Young was operating within an illegal “black market” and exploiting “desperate Afghans.” Before the segment aired, CNN national security correspondent Alex Marquardt expressed his desire to “nail this Zachary Young mf–er,” while senior editor Fuzz Hogan called Young “a s—t,” according to internal messages released as part of the case.

What’s more, CNN has tacitly admitted error, issuing an apology and doing damage control. The Beacon once more:

CNN has already removed the term “black market” from the online version of the segment and issued an on-air apology acknowledging Young had not broken any laws. For Young, that’s not enough. Attorneys for the veteran say the segment irreparably damaged his reputation and caused tens of millions of dollars in business losses.

In other words, it appears CNN’s guilt may be a foregone conclusion. The only matter at issue may be what damages are warranted.

Maddow’s Mad Row

CNN can be happy about one thing, however — that is, if misery really does love company. As McDaniel also writes:

The D/s/c propaganda media arm is in increasing trouble. Mika and Joe crawled to Mar A Lago to kiss Donald Trump’s ring, which caused an instant 16% drop in ratings. Comcast is dumping MSNBC, CNBC and USA, and D/s/c talking heads like Rachel Maddow, receiving princely sums for a single weekly program are panicking. Maddow and others are facing their own lawsuits.

Per the New York Post:

A defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal is headed to trial after a Georgia judge ruled that Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes and other journalists reported “verifiably false” claims about a doctor they said performed “mass hysterectomies” on ICE center detainees.

MSNBC and NBC journalists are accused of reporting 39 false claims about the doctor they called the “uterus collector” based on a whistleblower account from a nurse named Dawn Wooten who worked at the facility.

That doctor, gynecologist Dr. Mahendra Amin, “is seeking $30 million,” the Post also informs. This “is reportedly the same amount as Maddow’s yearly salary.”

The Media Death Spiral

As I wrote years ago, the MM are in a death spiral. Consider the blowback against Mika and Joe’s Trump meeting. That media figures would want to “talk to the other side” is rational and good business, even when driven purely by self interest. Yet this will anger intolerant ideologues and, through the MM’s own actions, such people now represent a large segment of its audience.

That is, the MM long ago became increasingly left-wing, thereby alienating many rational Americans. This made its remaining audience more left-wing, which encouraged the MM to become even more liberal still to satisfy it. This alienated yet more rational viewers/readers, making the audience even more left-wing still. Then … well, you get it. As this process continued, the MM became merely a left-wing echo chamber.

And, of course, what happens when such media finally behave in a middle-of-the-road fashion (e.g., meeting Orange Man)? The echo-chamber denizens will revolt, fleeing like roaches scattering when the kitchen light is turned on.

Then there’s another matter: Why don’t CNN and other MM learn from Nick Sandman-like fiascoes?

Because as with the proverbial scorpion stinging the frog, they can’t help themselves. Liars are what they are. And when you lie habitually, it’s only a matter of time before you slip up and utter an actionable falsehood.

The good news is that with the alternative media — podcasts, The New American, etc. — more and more Americans are getting the Truth and are realizing who the liars are. And with the coming MAGA control of the Executive Branch, censorship should decrease for the next four years, too. This means that maybe, just perhaps, the alternative media can finally become what it should be: mainstream.

                    This article was originally published at The New American.