{"id":165214,"date":"2025-01-14T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=165214"},"modified":"2025-01-09T19:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:21:23","slug":"young-trial-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=165214","title":{"rendered":"Young trial starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Might remember from last month (December 11th, or if you’re really challenged Young again )\u00a0<\/a>the story of the Navy vet from the Afghan evacuation – he was helping people get out and CNN smeared him. Some more to the story as the trial opened last week.<\/p>\n

Young believes CNN “destroyed his reputation and business” by branding him an “illegal profiteer” who exploited “desperate Afghans.” 14th Judicial Circuit Court Judge William S. Henry, who is presiding over the trial in Bay County, Florida, has ruled that Young “did not act illegally or criminally” despite what the network reported on air.<\/p>\n

“In August 2021, as American troops withdrew from Afghanistan under President Biden\u2019s orders, the world braced for the Taliban\u2019s return to power. Anyone watching the news at that time witnessed the chaotic situation that unfolded as millions of people attempted to flee the war-torn country,” attorney Kyle Roche said to kick off the plaintiff\u2019s opening statement.<\/p>\n

“But CNN reporters, sitting at their desks in Washington, D.C., wanted to tell Americans an even more sensational story,” Roche continued. “They had received a tip that Zachary Young, a veteran and CIA-trained operative, was illegally preying on desperate Afghans in a black market operation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the attorney said, it’s OK to report a story like that – unless it isn’t true.<\/p>\n

“It tried to get evidence that Zach was charging Afghans but everyone it spoke to either said that they had never heard of Zach, or that Zach only worked with corporations like Bloomberg that wanted to pay professionals like Zach to get their people out of the country,” he continued. “The facts didn\u2019t matter. CNN felt that they had a sensational story that would drive ratings, and they didn\u2019t care about the truth.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don’t you just hate it when facts ruin a good story?<\/p>\n

Roche then told the jury about internal communications in which CNN employees used profanities and disparaging language when privately discussing Young.<\/p>\n

Roche told the jurors that Young successfully evacuated 22 women out of Afghanistan on behalf of Audible and Bloomberg, which are American companies that hired him to ensure specific people made it out of the country safely.<\/p>\n

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“You\u2019re going to hear how this story turned Zach\u2019s life upside down, despite warnings from CNN\u2019s own employees that this story had \u2018more holes than Swiss cheese,\u2019” Roche said, hinting at internal communications that revealed some CNN staffers were skeptical of the story before it aired.<\/p>\n

Roche reminded jurors that the court had already ruled Young didn\u2019t break any laws by receiving money from Afghans.\u00a0 Fox News<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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But it wasn’t just glittering generalities… more meaty fare is afoot.<\/p>\n

The messages between senior reporter Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Young were exchanged before a segment featuring Young was broadcast. During the exchange, Young told Bo Lillis several times that he did not want to be named in the segment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Young said he heard that CNN was asking about him.<\/p>\n

“I thought perhaps you needed assistance rescuing Afghans,” Young said. “I’d rather not be named in any reporting.”<\/p>\n

Bo Lillis then asked Young to chat off the record so she could give him a sense of what CNN was working on.<\/p>\n

“Sure, if you will agree I won’t be named in any article,” Young wrote.<\/p>\n

Bo Lillis said she “can’t promise that in advance, unfortunately.”<\/p>\n

“But if you do agree to speak ‘off-the-record’ that guarantees that any reporting we have won’t reflect that you spoke to us,” Bo Lillis said.<\/p>\n

When Bo Lillis asked Young about the price model for his services, he said, “Pricing depends on local resource availability at any given time in a highly unstable environment.” He added that the people of Afghanistan are not expected to pay the evacuation costs, and he works with corporate sponsors with the resources to support the effort.<\/p>\n

“I do quite a lot, whether they have a sponsor behind them or not,” Young wrote. “I’m sure whoever brought me to your attention knows that and has their own motivation for promoting slander. Again, please make sure you have your facts aligned before taking a few text messages and running with it.”\u00a0 Newsweek<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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“Young Network News”? YNN? I like the sound of that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Might remember from last month (December 11th, or if you’re really challenged Young again )\u00a0the story … Young trial starts<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,301,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-afghanistan","category-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}