WaPoo Knuckles to the Sandmann

A great victory against the "cancel culture". John Sexton at Hot Air. Nick Sandmann Settles His Lawsuit With The Washington Post

Today is Nick Sandmann’s 18th birthday and he celebrated by making an announcement about his lawsuit against the Washington Post.

For our present to @N1ckSandmann to celebrate his 18th Birthday, @ToddMcMurtry & I gave Nicholas the gift of justice from . . .

THE WASHINGTON POST#FightBack https://t.co/flBMhCC1cX

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) July 24, 2020

Obviously the settlement here indicates that the Post has agreed to pay some amount of money, but neither Sandmann nor Wood are saying how much.

As mentioned above, Sandmann filed his $250 million lawsuit against the Post in February of 2019. In July of the same year, a federal judge dismissed that lawsuit saying that the Post’s coverage of the story was protected by the 1st Amendment even if the claims they reported weren’t accurate. That looked like the end of the line, not only for that lawsuit but for all of the lawsuits Sandmann had filed. However, last October the same judge partially reversed his decision after reviewing an amended complaint.

After reviewing an amended complaint, Judge William Bertelsman ordered Monday that the case could enter the discovery phase and hence a portion of the lawsuit against the newspaper could continue…
Bertelsman said in the order that he stands by his decision that 30 of the 33 statements Sandmann’s lawyers argued were libelous were not, but that “justice requires” further review of three of the statements.
“These three statements state that (Sandmann) ‘blocked’ Nathan Phillips and ‘would not allow him to retreat,’” the order reads.

At the time, attorney Lin Wood celebrated this reversal as a “huge win” for Sandmann’s case. And his co-counsel Todd McMurty tweeted that the decision, “bodes will for the NBC and CNN cases, as well.” He later deleted that, possibly because of the typo, but it’s clear what he meant. The fact that a federal judge had agreed part of the lawsuit should go forward against the Post was a warning to other organizations.

Perhaps influenced by that decision, CNN settled a similar defamation suit with Sandmann in January. Then as now no one would say exactly what CNN had agreed to pay. It seems that part of the settlement is an agreement by both sides not to share the details. So don’t expect to find out anytime soon how much the Post settlement was worth. But obviously, even if Sandmann is settling for 1 percent of the original figure, he’s already a very rich 18 year old.

Finally, both Sandmann and Lin Wood made clear they aren’t done yet.

Defamation lawsuits on behalf of @N1ckSandmann still pending in Federal Court in Covington, Kentucky are against NBC, ABC. CBS, Rolling Stone, Gannett, & New York Times. Footsteps of justice also approaching Jack & @Twitter. #FightBack https://t.co/rvmLv4MdcH

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) July 24, 2020

Sandmann was sandbagged by the left wing media, virtually all of them, when the leftist "native American" agitator Nathan Philips got into his face and beat his drum while he waited for a bus to take him away from Washington D.C. after a pro-life march. Many in the left wing media excoriated him (by name) as a racist and said that he shouted racial epithets, "smirked" and cut off the retreat of the drummer, and later video revealed he had done nothing of the sort, and that Phillips and Black Hebrew Israelites instigated the apparent confrontation. All Sandmann did was stand there and smile.

The media then claim that defamation did not apply because Sandmann was a public figure. Which, of course, he was by then, only through dint of their activities.

I hope the Post takes the settlement out of the salary of the actual journalist and editors who wrote the story.