On Wednesday morning, only NBC’s Today show mentioned lawyers for Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann filing a lawsuit against the Washington Post for the liberal newspaper’s defamatory coverage of him following false reports that Sandmann and his classmates were the instigators of a confrontation with a Native American activist at the Lincoln Memorial in January.
The suit, which condemned the Post for engaging in “a modern-day form of McCarthyism,” was filed on Tuesday. “The high school student at the center of the viral confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial last month is suing The Washington Post for defamation, claiming the newspaper accused him of racist acts,” co-host Hoda Kotb informed NBC viewers on Wednesday.
Moments later, she added: “The suit claims The Washington Post waged malicious attacks on Sandmann by falsely accusing him of instigating the tense standoff with Native American activist Nathan Phillips.”
The Washington Post was not the only media outlet to jump to such conclusions, NewsBusters documented numerous examples of nasty attacks on Sandmann and his fellow students. During a hostile interview with Sandmann on the January 23 Today show, co-host Savannah Guthrie pressed him on whether he owed an “apology” for his “aggressive” behavior.
Fox News recently reported that several other media organizations may also be facing civil litigation from Sandmann and his family.
While the Today show at least allowed 37 seconds of air time to acknowledge the lawsuit Wednesday morning, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning completely ignored the story.
Just days ago, there was a blackout of broadcast network coverage after an independent investigation cleared the Covington students of wrongdoing in the incident.
The press often smear people with great fanfare, but when it comes to correcting the record and admitting they were wrong, the media are either silent or merely whisper.
