Overly lauded NPR media reporter David Folkenflik finally discovered the $1 billion defamation suit against CNN on the eve of the start of the trial, Sunday. While trying to massage the facts in CNN’s favor, Folkenflik huffed about the venue for the trial and injected President-elect Trump into the case for no reason. He also completely omitted CNN’s embarrassing attempt to use Taliban Sharia Law as their shield and other key details.
Folkenflik opened his piece titled “CNN goes on trial over its report alleging 'black market' for Afghan rescues” by taking his own sniping shots at Navy veteran and Plaintiff Zachary Young for charging money for dangerous work in a war zone: “CNN reported that a security consultant was among those offering to evacuate them — for a price — as part of an investigation into claims of ‘black market’ rescue operations.”
Even though Young’s success with evacuating two dozen women sponsored by companies (including Audible and Bloomberg) has never been a disputed point in court, Folkenflik suggested that success had been a subject of debate:
Chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt told viewers that CNN could not confirm that Young had successfully evacuated anyone who had paid him to leave the country.
(…)
In rebutting those allegations in court, CNN has since cast doubt on Young's claim of the successful evacuations.
In his deposition testimony, Marquardt admitted that he found no evidence of criminality by Young; a fact recently reaffirmed by a ruling by Judge William Scott Henry.
Folkenflik followed up by huffing about the venue of the trial (the Bay County Courthouse in Panama City, Florida) and the political timing, even though the case did not involve politics:
The trial kicks off Monday in the Florida Panhandle, a deeply red part of the country, at a time when public perceptions of the media are increasingly ideologically polarized and the incoming president, Donald Trump, has made political and legal attacks on the press part of his regular repertoire.
He appeared to be priming the pump to blame a possible CNN loss on the location of the trial rather than the facts of the case.
He then went off for a couple paragraphs about Trump’s recent defamation spat with ABC News, despite no similarities in the cases:
Just last month, Trump settled the defamation case he had filed against ABC News — also in Florida. It focused on anchor George Stephanopoulos' repeated characterization of Trump as being found liable for rape. In fact, the New York jury had found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. It had declined to find Trump liable for rape.
The network's parent company, Disney, agreed to make a $15 million donation to a future Trump foundation and pay $1 million toward Trump's legal fees to resolve the suit. Many legal observers thought Disney would have been likely to prevail in court.
While Folkenflik did mention the damaging internal CNN messages that were unearthed in discovery that showed a hostile attitude toward Young, he never mentioned that two courts and four judges had determined they were evidence of possible “actual malice.”
However, he did conspicuously omit CNN’s attempt to cite Taliban Sharia law as how they could get away with calling Young a criminal. It was an argument that was thrown out by Judge Henry.
There was also no mention of CNN embarrassingly ditching their entire legal team and hiring new lawyers after a string of defeats. And he parroted CNN’s ridiculous complaint that Young “refused to cooperate with CNN's reporting efforts” as if the network had any formal authority to force anyone to talk to them.
This bias by omission to obfuscate for CNN is just another reason to #DefundNPR.