A federal judge has dismissed five defamation lawsuits brought against national media companies by a Kentucky student over a highly publicised 2019 incident at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
Nick Sandmann, then a 16-year-old student at Covington Catholic High School, appeared in a viral video that showed him standing face-to-face with a Native American activist.
That man, Vietnam veteran Nathan Phillips, sang a traditional song and beat a drum as Mr Sandmann, wearing a red MAGA hat, stood and smiled at him.
His lawsuits against The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Gannett Co Inc, and Rolling Stone had been filed in federal court in Kentucky, while he had already settled cases against three other media companies, including CNN and NBC News.
His lawsuit was based on statements published by the media outlets in which Mr Phillips alleged Mr Sandmann had “blocked” him or “wouldn’t allow” him to leave as the pair faced each other at the Washington DC monument.
Mr Sandmann stated in court papers that the claims were false and defamatory and that they had been published by the media companies with malicious intent.
But that argument was rejected by US District Judge William Bertelsman, who ruled that the claims were “objectively unverifiable and thus unactionable opinions”.
“Instead, a reasonable reader would understand that Phillips was simply conveying his view of the situation,” Judge Bertelsman stated.
“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 judge added that the media pendants in the case “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.”
Mr Sandmann’s lawyer, Todd McNurty told The Lexington Herald-Leader they were “disappointed” at the decision and intend to appeal it.
