CNN’s Parts and Reporter Months After His Story Network’s Multi-Million-Dollar Defamation Lawsuit
After months of his story of a security contractor in Afghanistan, the network paid millions to resolve libel lawsuits, Alex Marquardt announced that he would leave CNN as its chief national correspondent.
“Some personal news: Eight years, I’m leaving CNN,” Marquardt tweeted on Twitter on Monday. “It’s hard to say goodbye, but it’s an honor to work in the best job in the business. Thank you so much for the national security team and the teammates of the phenomenon I work with in the United States and abroad.”
Marquardt’s public acknowledged that he was leaving the network, just like Oliver Darcy, founder of Status News, who is former CNN colleague Oliver Darcy, reported that CNN rejected Marquardt’s “editorial differences.”
A CNN spokesman declined to comment on the reasons why Marquardt left, noting that the network “does not comment on personnel matters.” However, the spokesman did point out that Marquard’s tweet was accurate that he was leaving CNN.
However, earlier this year, Marquardt produced and reported an investigative story and reported high fees for desperate refugees in Afghanistan hoping to escape war-torn Afghanistan, the center of a libel complaint filed by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, the only libel complaint called the contractor in the work.
Alex Marquardt, chief national correspondent of CNN, confirmed that he had left the network a few months after a story he proposed led to the loss of a defamation trial. (CNN)
According to Young’s lawsuit, the story first aired in 2021 – mistakenly linking him to Afghanistan’s “black market” operation after U.S. troops evacuated from the country. He noted that Marquette’s report showed that his activities were criminal and caused him to fail to make a living because his reputation was destroyed. Young testified that his business only accused the company’s sponsors of evacuating Afghans, not targeting individual residents.
Although the story itself does not explicitly accuse Young of criminal behavior, the report appears on air Jake Tapper’s lead Including the term “black market”, the term ultimately led to the network’s apology the next year. However, CNN’s correction pointed out that it was “not intended to imply Mr. Yang’s participation in the black market”, and for Young, they soon filed a lawsuit against the Internet.
After a two-day trial, the jury found libel liability and awarded the young $4 million in financial losses and $1 million in emotional damage after a trial in a very conservative state of Florida. The network then reached a settlement with Young as the trial entered a second phase to determine punitive damage.
Marquardt testified at the two-week trial with several other network employees. For his part, he insists that CNN’s initial correction of the story is unnecessary and that litigation can only be avoided as required by the export legal team.
“I reported the facts. I reported what I found. Everything there is fact, accurate, and I believe in fairness.” Marquardt said at the trial, against Young’s legal team, describing the story as a “hot song” against the plaintiff. “You need a bad guy to have a scandal story,” Young’s attorney Devin Freedman once asked Marquardt. “You hate him, don’t you?”
Finally, it could be messages and emails from Marquardt to other editors, involving stories raised in court that block the fate of the trial. Marquardt and other CNN staff called Young “Sh*tbag” with a “fist” and the now-formed CNN correspondent said he “wanted to nail this Zachary Young Mf ***er”.
Marquardt left CNN after eight years of working on the network, which led him to be promoted to Chief National Correspondent in 2023. (AFP/Getty)
A CNN spokesman told a CNN independent: “We are proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and mindful reporting at CNN, although we will certainly take useful courses from this situation.”
Reaction to Marquardt’s departure from the network, the young lawyer said his clients “believed that the universe tends to reconcile things in their own time” and that “some results speak for themselves.”
Marquardt briefly served as CNN’s campaign reporter in 2008, returned to the network nearly a decade later and was eventually promoted to chief national security correspondent by the end of 2023.
The case is also the case during dangerous times for news organizations, especially when the public, especially conservatives, are dissatisfied with traditional media outlets.
The trial took weeks after ABC News paid Donald Trump $15 million to resolve the libel lawsuit, with legal experts urging CNN to settle a settlement with Young, mainly in light of the “abnormal” text messages that Marquardt has published. Furthermore, the judge ruled that the burden of proof was low to prove that CNN’s behavior was “actually malicious” because Young was not a public figure.
“My advice to CNN is to cough. Settling,” said Charles Glasser, a former Bloomberg News Media legal counsel. “Acknowledge you’re wrong. It’s inappropriate to admit your exaggeration and move on.”
