On Tuesday, news reports broke that CNN shelled out a settlement to Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann after the teen filed a $275 million suit against the network for smearing him last year.
On Wednesday, Fox News co-host Juan Williams speculated that CNN settled with Sandmann to avoid “discovery,” where the network’s internal communications and emails would become public.
“I think a lot of people who don’t like CNN are quick to rush and say, ‘Oh this means CNN admitted that they did wrong.’ I think — I know lawyers — the lawyers are like, ‘Oh, if we have to go through discovery then that means emails and discussions are gonna be revealed. We may not want that out,'” Williams explained.
Shannon Bream, fill-in host for “The Five” on Wednesday, piggybacked off Williams’ explanation.
“Juan, like you said, when you go into discovery — I used to have clients who you talk to them and say, ‘Listen, this is how much it’s gonna cost you to go to trial, this is what they want in settlement, what do you wanna do?’ And some people would say yeah, we don’t want all that stuff out there, we’ll pay,” Bream explained.
“I’d have other clients who would say, we will not pay a dime because what we’re worried about is if we pay this person, the next one is gonna want it and the next one and the next one,” she continued. “So, CNN had to make a lot of calculations here just beyond the legal issues.”
The details of the CNN settlement with Sandmann have remained undisclosed.
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04.25.2024