Sandmann Strikes Back: Files 5 More Lawsuits Against Media Companies

All 5 of the lawsuits will be formally filed by March 9, 2020. 

Sandmann was participating in the March for Life event in Washington D.C. when he was approached by Nathan Phillips.

The press reported that Sandmann harrassed and blocked Phillips, which led to mockery and anger from many in the media, including late night comedy hosts. 

Of course, footage showing the entire encounter (which was available the whole time) ended up providing that Sandmann was innocently standing there. He was calm despite Phillips' apparent intimidations.

The Washington Examiner has more details on the upcoming lawsuits Sandmann will be filing:

Attorneys for Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann announced that they were filing lawsuits against five additional media outlets.

Sandmann was accused of harassment after he was photographed sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat while standing in front of a Native American man, Nathan Phillips, with a smirk on his face in Washington, D.C., last year. It was later revealed that the student did nothing inappropriate during the exchange, despite several major newsrooms reporting otherwise.

His attorneys notified the court on Feb. 23 that they intended to file lawsuits against the New York Times, Gannett, ABC, CBS, and Rolling Stone. All of the lawsuits will be formally filed by March 9.

“All of the future defendants listed above have published or republished statements made by Nathan Phillips and others that Nicholas blocked or otherwise restricted Phillips’ free movement and would not allow Phillips to retreat at the National Mall on January 18, 2019. Nicholas reserves his right to file complaints in this is Court or any other court against any other potential defendant not listed above, subject to the applicable statute of limitations,” Sandmann’s attorneys argued in the letter to the court.

If the CNN settlement is any indication, the media hopefully realizes it is in the wrong!

After these lawsuits, hopefully the media will think twice before rushing to judgement on a story.

The impact of Sandmann's cases will hopefully protect other conservatives from being falsely villainized by the left-wing media.

At 16 years old, Sandmann's life was turned upside down by the viral nature of the news story.

While Sandmann is respected at school, in his community, and by his friends and family, the story has damaged his reputation and at times even threatened his safety.

The Daily Wire has more insight into the long-term impact of Sandmann's case against the media treatment around him:

“CNN was probably more vicious in its direct attacks on Nicholas than The Washington Post. And CNN goes into millions of individuals’ homes,” Wood told Fox News’ Mark Levin last year. “CNN couldn’t resist the idea that here’s a guy with a young boy, with that Make America Great Again cap on. So they go after him.”

“They really went after Nicholas with the idea that he was part of a mob that was attacking the Black Hebrew Israelites, yelling racist slurs at the Black Hebrew Israelites. Totally false,” Wood continued. “Now you say you’ve seen the tape; if you took the time to look at the full context of what happened that day, Nicholas Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong. He was, as I’ve said to others, he was the only adult in the room.”

In an interview on Fox News last year, McMurtry told anchor Sandra Smith, “Well, what CNN’s tagline is is ‘facts first.’ And what we believe their reporting was in this circumstance was lies first, cover up second, and facts not yet determined by that organization. So the difference between this lawsuit and the other lawsuit that we have filed is that CNN is a very significant media organization with a much broader reach than, say, the Washington Post. It has Twitter followers of 41 million people. It published four videos. Nine online articles that were tweeted out. So that’s millions and millions and millions of repetitions of the lies and falsehoods that CNN spread.”

“Well, we’ve talked about the impact on Nicholas Sandmann a number of times and it — it is significant,” McMurtry continued. “Nicholas Sandmann was a 16-year-old man who had a perfect reputation. He was loved by his parents, respected at his school, and had many good friends at Covington Catholic High School. So he was a person that was doing very well in life, and due to his strong character, he still is. But nevertheless, his character has now been determined by the lies issued by CNN. So the facts were not first, the lies were.”

While settlements and rulings can't undo the past, we hope this will help shape and reform the press to at least think twice before they take a story public!