Yesterday it was reported that CNN settled with Nicholas Sandman over his $275 million defamation suit based on their false reporting about the Indian pounding the drum in his face. Yesterday one of you asked me about it and I pointed out that what CNN and the others being sued are really worried about is having an appeal going to the Supreme Court that could result in the overturning of New York Times v. Sullivan. Sullivan was decided in 1964 and is the case that basically gave media the ability to defame public officials and figures unless the plaintiff could prove that the newspaper or other media outlet knew the published defamation was false and did it anyway. Basically ignorance was an absolute defense.

Obviously the case is old and media has changed considerably since then. I believe Justice Clarence Thomas and others have recently questioned the constitutional legitimacy of that decision. (As an aside when I was a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard, Sydney Pollock showed up to screen and get our comments on his film on this subject — Absence of Malice — before it opened in theatres. It is a very good movie starring Paul Newman, Sally Fields and my look a like Wilfred Brumley, and I highly recommend it.)

So my take is that the last thing these media folks want is to see a case as egregious as this one go to the Supremes and have their ability to lie with impunity disappear. I expect that the others being sued will also settle to preserve their right to publish nonsense with impunity.

BTW can you imagine where Justice Kavanaugh might go after all the non vetted bs against him was published?