January 20, 2025

CNN Loses Defamation Suit

A U.S. Navy veteran who was smeared by the Leftmedia outlet as profiting from desperate Afghans sets the record straight.

Back in 2021, during the Biden administration’s disastrous Afghanistan exit, U.S. Navy veteran Zachery Young was a security and intelligence consultant who was hired by a number of nonprofit organizations to help save as many Afghans as possible as the Taliban was quickly taking over the country.

Young’s services cost money, but it was not Afghans who were footing the bills. It was nonprofits and corporations such as Bloomberg and Audible.

At the time, CNN elected to run with a story claiming that desperate Afghans were being exploited by greedy profiteers. CNN ran the following headline: “Afghans trying to flee Taliban face black markets, exorbitant fees, no guarantee of safety or success.”

In order to back up its claim, CNN highlighted Young, falsely framing him as profiteering from desperate Afghans.

CNN’s segment featured Jake Tapper and reporter Alex Marquardt. In his reporting, Marquardt pointed to Young with an image of him on the screen stating that he was asking $75,000 to transport a vehicle out to Pakistan and $14,500 per person to the Unite Arab Emirates. Marquardt observed that those were “prices well beyond the reach of most Afghans.”

Marquardt explained that he had tried to call Young without success, but was able to text message him. He then pointed to a number of text messages he exchanged, framing them as evidence of Young’s supposed exploitation of Afghans.

Young sued CNN for defamation. During the trial, he argued that CNN’s false reporting negatively impacted not only his business but also his marriage and reputation. Young noted that CNN failed to report that he had also rescued at least 22 women from Afghanistan.

During the trial, it was made clear that Young “did not act illegally or criminally.” Young’s lawyer, Vel Freedman, argued, “It was a calculated attack by CNN on his character that has inflicted deep and lasting wounds.” This reality was exposed in a text message from Marquardt sent to a colleague wherein he wrote, “We’re gonna nail this Zachary Young mf***er.”

In a big blow to CNN, the jury ruled in Young’s favor. The jury has awarded Young $4 million in lost earnings and $1 million in damages.

More than the monetary blow to CNN is the reputational blow. CNN has been bleeding viewership for the last several years. In just the last two years, the Leftmedia outlet’s net worth has diminished by over half, from $4.4 billion in 2021 to $2.3 billion at the end of 2023. Since the election, CNN’s average viewership is down to just 367,000.

This is what happens when a news company elevates promoting a political narrative over and against reporting the truth. If CNN wants to earn back Americans’ trust, it must do its best to drop its leftist bias and really lean into just reporting the hard news. Furthermore, CNN must adopt the position of trusting the American people to be discerning enough to come to their own conclusions.

Until and unless those changes come, Judge William Henry spoke for all of us in the trial when he told CNN’s legal counsel, “Your credibility with me … is about none.”

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2025 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.