Navy veteran Zachary Young filed a defamation suit against U.S. News & World Report on Wednesday, the third such defamation suit filed after his trial victory against CNN in January. In the complaint filed with Florida’s 14th Judicial Circuit in Bay County, Young alleged that U.S. News had defamed him by way of republishing the same Associated Press article he recently sued them for.
The filing, obtained by NewsBusters, reiterated their argument against the AP, noting that, “AP’s article blatantly accused Mr. Young of engaging in criminal human smuggling” (emphasis added in filing).
Adding: “The Article further uses the characterization: “but he said he worked exclusively with deep[1]pocketed outside sponsors” further calling into question the verdict from the jurors in Bay County, the rulings from the Court, and implying that Mr. Young is really a people smuggler who just simply said he was being paid by outside sponsors to “smuggle” people. The reputational damages here are substantial.”
On the allegations against U.S. News, the filing pointed to their republishing of the offending AP report:
Defendant U.S. News & World Report L.P – an AP syndication partner – republished that AP article on its website the same day, disseminating the defamatory accusation anew to a significant audience who has come to trust U.S. News & World Report as a source of news. In that article (the “Article”), U.S. News republished the Article from AP, paradoxically stating that “Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan.
As NewsBusters previously reported, U.S. News had pulled the republished AP story from their website and replaced it with this statement explainong why it was removed and that it was removed after Young had reached out to them (Click “expand”):
U.S. News & World Report has removed the article previously available at this URL that had been published on January 17, 2025, entitled “Florida Jury Says CNN Defamed Navy Veteran in Story About Endangered Afghans.” The article was reported and written by the Associated Press (“AP”). As an AP subscriber, U.S News regularly republishes multiple AP articles on a daily basis.
The AP article reported on Zachary Young’s defamation lawsuit against CNN. The AP article reported that the jury found that a CNN report on Mr. Young had falsely implied he had engaged in illegal conduct. The article further reported that the jury awarded Mr. Young damages of $5 million and that the case then settled.
The AP article described Mr. Young as a “U.S. Navy veteran who helped rescue endangered Afghans”. The AP article also stated that “Young's business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan.” Mr. Young subsequently contacted U.S. News and objected to the word “smuggle” as accusing him of engaging in criminal activity. In republishing the article, U.S. News had no intention to suggest that Mr. Young’s actions were unlawful. Nevertheless, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, U.S. News has removed and retracts the AP article.
The new filing provided more backstory to how that move by U.S. News came about, including their request he sign a legal waiver.
“U.S. News & World Report L.P, tried to condition a retraction on Mr. Young signing a release of claims. This self-serving delay and conditional “correction” undermined the very purpose of a retraction and demonstrated U.S. News’s bad faith,” he told the court.
The filing described Young’s initial contact with U.S. News over the matter as “a no-cost, no-strings-attached opportunity to resolve the matter and mitigate the harm.” It apparently took the outlet “two full business days to respond” and they partially came back with “With all due respect to you and your client, U.S. News cannot accept your client’s proposed retraction” (emphasis used in filing).
Young also argued that U.S. News knew the offending aspects of the AP report were incorrect because they had republished a Reuters report on the CNN defamation trial verdict and an earlier AP article detailing the allegations in the case.
The filing accused U.S. News on three counts: defamation per se, defamation by implication, and injurious falsehood / trade libel. Young also “demands an award of interest, taxable costs, and a trial by jury on all factual issues so triable[.]”
