Well, this is rich. Here is the statement, published late on Friday when presumably they hoped no one would notice, by the editors of the Washington Post:
A Washington Post article first posted online on Jan. 19 reported on a Jan. 18 incident at the Lincoln Memorial. Subsequent reporting, a student’s statement and additional video allow for a more complete assessment of what occurred, either contradicting or failing to confirm accounts provided in that story — including that Native American activist Nathan Phillips was prevented by one student from moving on, that his group had been taunted by the students in the lead-up to the encounter, and that the students were trying to instigate a conflict. The high school student facing Phillips issued a statement contradicting his account; the bishop in Covington, Ky., apologized for the statement condemning the students; and an investigation conducted for the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School found the students’ accounts consistent with videos. Subsequent Post coverage, including video, reported these developments: “Viral standoff between a tribal elder and a high schooler is more complicated than it first seemedâ€; “Kentucky bishop apologizes to Covington Catholic students, says he expects their exonerationâ€; “Investigation finds no evidence of ‘racist or offensive statements’ in Mall incident.â€
A Jan. 22 correction to the original story reads: Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips said he served in the U.S. Marines but was never deployed to Vietnam.
or, said another way, nearly every detail in the original story published by the WaPo was incorrect, uncorroborated, and skewed, not conforming to the WaPo’s purported ethical standards. And they’ve reached this conclusion six weeks after the story was published. A $250 million law suit does wonders to focus the mind.
Were I the publisher of the WaPo, I would encourage my lawyers to settle as quickly as possible. The primary remaining question is whether the WaPo will pay $100 million, $250 million, or more. Mr. Bezos is going to find that an unethical newspaper is a very expensive hobby. He’s been accumulating a number of those lately.
It should settle for a couple hundred thousand or so. No real harm done.
Steve
Depending on your beliefs, Covington and the Washington Post is an example of
real news,
“fake newsâ€,
real “fake newsâ€,
fake “real newsâ€,
or fake “fake newsâ€
In news that is far more significant to Mr Bezos, https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/20/new-conflict-evidence-surfaces-in-jedi-cloud-contract-procurement-process/
The DOD may have found evidence of improper influence peddling in the JEDI contract. You know what they say; there is never one cockroach.
I like to see how the Washington Post covers that.
Ten years ago no real harm would have been done. Now that news report will follow that kid for the rest of his life. Just issuing a retraction a month or so later on page 19 isn’t enough. I think that real, lasting harm has been done.
Curious Onlooker:
There’s a saying that goes back about 50 years to when IBM had a latch on the datacenters of major corporations: nobody ever got fired for recommending IBM. The successor to that kind of market position was Microsoft so many years but that’s changing.
In web services that’s effectively the position presently held by AWS. That’s why the story you point out will be interesting.
” I think that real, lasting harm has been done.”
I think that he doesn’t need to work another day in his life. He can live off of talk radio, cable TV and write a book if he wants, and no one on the left will really remember him in a couple of weeks. And $100 million? Remember the fake Breitbart story where they dressed up like a hooker and pimp after the fact? That guy actually lost his job. Pretty sure it didn’t help his reputation in the community when they made it look like he helped traffic children. Payout for the suit from that was $100,000, and that was deliberately fraudulent. If you are going to get a $100 million dollar payout something really, really bad needs to happen, like getting tortured. Being from Chicago you should be familiar with this idea. So what did the city pay those who were tortured by Burge et al?
“May 6, 2015—Whereas, for this reason, the City of Chicago wishes, in some tangible way, to redress any and all harm that was suffered at the hands of Jon Burge or his subordinates by extending to those individuals who have a credible claim of torture or physical abuse (“Burge victims”) and to the members of their immediate family, and, in some cases, to their grandchildren, a variety of benefits.
The clerk read the resolution, and the legislation passed. From a total of $5.5 million, each of the 57 documented torture-ring survivors would get nearly $100,000. All survivors and their families would have the benefit of free Chicago junior college tuition and a counseling center; Chicago public schools would teach the history of police abuse to all eighth and 10th graders, and there would be a public memorial erected in the city.”
So $100,000 doesn’t sound so far off. Some of the guys tortured probably spent time in jail wrongfully because of the torture. Still, they did get a monument, so let’s throw in a statue for the kid. (And yes, I am aware that some of those tortured also sued and got more money, but not $100 million.)
Steve
Heh. Get with the program, steve. Morgan and Morgan, ahem, “for the people.”
I just re-read the corrected original story. If one didn’t know anything about the history of this event, I think it would be pretty confusing. They should probably just delete it entirely.
Steve,
I doubt a 16-year-old kid can stretch this 15-minutes of fame moment to last a lifetime to support himself and, presumably, a family at some point. Of course, that assumes he’s even interested in such a spotlight and the early evidence is that he isn’t. He didn’t seek out this kind of infamy, it was forced on him.
He probably just wants to be normal. And being normal will be difficult when there is so much misinformation out there and people who made up their minds early and haven’t bothered to reexamine the facts of their positions. And it’s not just the Wapo story, but all the blogs, tweets and outrage that it spawned. The internet is forever and every job interview or encounter he’ll have to be prepared for the range of reactions people will display based on their own political views or the search history that Google feeds them. If it were me, I certainly wouldn’t be saying “no real harm done.” In the internet age, reputation is important again.
As I was writing, more developments in the AWS / JEDI case.
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2019/03/fbi-dod-ig-conducting-preliminary-investigation-into-jedi-procurements/
I will wait to see if the FBI really are investigating this. But if they are…
Here is a simple scale of the significance.
250 million is the Covington Lawsuit.
10 billion is the JEDI contract.
I can’t even put a figure on the total revenue that Amazon derives from all US governments.
It would be pretty unusual for Amazon to be suspended or debarred.
Andy- What was his name? You dont get to go look it up. Do you really know it? I dont. I doubt many people do and I doubt very few remember a year from now. It will be seen as a positive by half of the population, and most of the people on the left now acknowledge this was a mistake. So there is probably 20%-25% of people who might hold this against him, if they recognize him.
Now you go ahead and explain, or Dave, or Drew, why this is worth $100 million when people tortured and wrongfully jailed got $100,000. I am really curious about this.
Steve
Just as a point of reference, the 3 Duke lacrosse players who were falsely accused seem to have done OK. Again, compare that with the ACRON guy or the people the police tortured. Wharton, Emory, Deutsche Bank.
https://www.chatsports.com/duke-blue-devils/a/duke-lacrosse-scandal-where-falsely-accused-players-collin-finnerty-reade-seligmann-and-david-evans-are-today-27435
Steve
Reportedly each player received $20 million. IMO the lawsuit against the WaPo will result in a judgment closer to $20 million than to $100,000 and I will not be in the least surprised if it’s $100 million or more.
Also I think we’re talking about different things. You’re talking about justice and I’m talking about the law.
“You’re talking about justice and I’m talking about the law.â€
Of course. That’s why so many contracts stipulate arbitration and not jury trials.
For those of you not familiar with Morgan and Morgan, they are trial lawyers. Heavy advertisers down here. If you are injured call them………….and they will quickly determine the merits, um, well, actually they will quickly determine if there is a deep pocketed insurance company they can settle with. Your interests and the law be damned.
“Also I think we’re talking about different things. You’re talking about justice and I’m talking about the law.”
Or said another way, I said should and you said would. These huge awards when no one suffered real, substantial harm just suck. Makes our legal system look even worse than it already looks. All you need is a really good (or bad depending upon how you look at it) lawyer.
Steve
Steve,
No one needs to remember things when there is the internet. Presumably, you google prospective candidates for employment? What happens when the search results for that name are wholly a torrent of accusations and “reports” about a maga-hat wearing racist who practically assaulted a native American veteran who was minding his own business. How much time would you or some HR department spend sifting through to find the truth unless you’re really, really desperate to fill the position? How many employers are going to take the chance if there are other candidates available to hire?
As for what he deserves or should expect in compensation, I have no idea. I’m not an expert, but I believe it’s really hard to successfully sue news organizations for things like this. So I would tentatively expect the settlement to be on the lower end.
I hope for the kid’s sake they settle it quickly and he moves on and gets the hell away from his people. I don’t think it will happen though. I expect that Trump will start dragging this kid on stage soon. And he seems to be poorly served by the adults in his life, so there will be no pushback. Imagine being a teacher taking teenagers to a pro-life rally and thinking it’s cool to wear the hat of a sex offender into grabbing women in the pussy. Ah yes–you hate abortion and you are down with sexual assault. Awesome–you’re not at all a liberal stereotype of a misogynistic conservative. That’s who this kid is going to be identified with in ten years.
One of their lawyers apparently represented JonBenet Ramsey’s parents, which should tell you were they are coming from. They won a judgement against CBS because CBS called their kid a murderer without any evidence except their son and parents being creepy as hell. They’re proceeding as if that were the case here. The WaPo did not do that. They just ran an article. No accusations, no name-calling. That’s it. The DA had to resign in Durham because he screwed up a criminal case. Nothing like that here. But Trump’s cult is so crazy that a Saturday article = 500 million.
Basically, they should give him 500K and keep him away from Trump and his nutjob supporters. Maybe the judge can emancipate him.
” What happens when the search results for that name ”
What you mostly get now, could change I guess, is articles about how it was fake news. So, as I said, with 50% of employees his history will guarantee him a job. With another 30%-40% they will look at this and realize it was a mistake and hire him on his merits. Maybe 10% of people hold this against him forever. So pay him some small amount.
“As for what he deserves or should expect in compensation, I have no idea. ”
Avoiding the question. Is it worth $100 million? I think the answer is clearly not. He might win a bunch because he gets good shyster lawyers and a favorable venue, but that is just because our legal system often sucks. Too bad we outlawed trial by combat. That was at least entertaining.
Steve