The Washington Post has settled a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenager who alleged that news coverage of the teen’s encounter with a Native American activist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last year was defamatory.
The Washington Post has settled a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenager who alleged that news coverage of the teen’s encounter with a Native American activist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last year was defamatory.
The Post admitted no wrongdoing in settling with the family of Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington, Ky., high school student who was involved in the episode during a school trip to Washington in January 2019.
Attorneys for the Sandmanns filed to dismiss the suit Friday morning in federal district court in Covington. Neither side disclosed the terms of the settlement, which foreclosed the possibility of a trial.
The family contended in a suit filed last year that The Post defamed Sandmann in seven articles and via tweets promoting the articles. The Post has maintained that its reporting was accurate and fair.
The Sandmanns settled a similar lawsuit against CNN in January. The terms of that agreement were also kept confidential by both sides. The family’s suit against NBC is still pending. They have also filed suits against Gannett, ABC, CBS, the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
The encounter between Sandmann and Nathan Phillips, the Native American activist, became the subject of national debate after videos of the scene went viral.
The first videos showed a teenager, later identified as Sandmann — wearing a « Make America Great Again » cap in support of President Donald Trump — standing face-to-face with Phillips as Phillips chanted and beat a small drum on the memorial’s steps. Other students, some of them also wearing MAGA hats, shouted and chanted nearby.
Phillips asserted after the encounter that he had been trying to walk to the memorial when he found his path blocked by Sandmann and other students, who he felt were ridiculing him.
