MSNBC settles defamation suit

CNN, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, FOX, Daily Mail have recently all lost or settled defamation lawsuits.

It seems like a lifetime ago when Nickolas Sandmann and family won settlements from several media outlets over their ridiculous coverage of his encounter with a Washington DC American Indian troll. Since then, it has become open season, and media outlets are now actually being judged and held accountable for basically lying about things and spinning the news to their own personal political beliefs.

The latest settlement involves MSNBC. They were sued for defamation by Georgia gynecologist Dr. Mahendra Amin who was described by several MSNBC personalities as the "uterus collector". Dr Amin had been a doctor at an ICE detention center. The nickname came from allegations that Amin was said to have performed many unnecessary hysterectomies on females being detained in an ICE detention facility. You know, just because he was racist or sexist or something.

But apparently this particular doctor only performed two hysterectomies while working there and neither were unnecessary. MSNBC was trying to get around all of this by making the claim that they were just reporting on a whistleblower's complaint. However, it appears that MSNBC were aware that the whistleblower charges were largely false but reported it anyways. Being able to report on the horrors of something happening to ICE detainees was obviously more important to MSNBC than reporting the truth. The description of Amin as the uterus collector was deemed to have risen to the level of actual malice. Most believe that Amin was probably given most (if not all) of the 30 million he was suing for.

This was on the heels of another settlement from CNN for reporting that an independent contractor who worked to assist people getting out of Afghanistan was a greedy man who exploited desperate Americans and charged them outrageous fees to provide transport. This was entirely untrue and completely motivated by their desire to defend the Biden administration's hapless withdrawal from Afghanistan and to punish anyone who stepped up to help make up for the incompetence displayed by the government.

While the media has pretty much gotten away with whatever they wanted to report for years, that has taken a dramatic turn against them. Suddenly they are required to actually tell the truth and cannot just make things up for political purposes. These lawsuits have spurred much anger and resentment from the media, as many are upset with the settlements and see their time of being able to do whatever they want coming to a brutal close. The worst, of course, being the ABC settlement to Trump as many in the media (and other liberal circles) were left seething.

For most Americans I think they appreciate accountability. The media's reputation is so low that it can hardly get any lower. Perhaps these lawsuits and settlements will spur the sort of change that might bring back a tiny bit of the reputation and trust that they once had.