Mississippi prof, who went to Georgetown Prep with Brett Kavanaugh, sues HuffPost
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Jimmie E. Gates , Mississippi Clarion Ledger Published 8:59 a.m. CT Aug. 22, 2019 | Updated 5:50 p.m. CT Aug. 22, 2019
A Gulfport professor and advocate is suing the national news website HuffPost alleging defamation involving a September 2018 story on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's days at Georgetown Prep school.
Derrick Evans’ lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport against HuffPost and its former journalist, Ashley Feinberg.
The lawsuit said HuffPost and Feinberg repeatedly defamed Evans and friend Douglas Kennedy to a nationwide audience on multiple occasions in September 2018 by falsely asserting that they helped arrange the purchase and delivery of cocaine at Georgetown Prep that resulted in the April 1984 death of David Kennedy, Douglas’ brother and the son of the late U.S. attorney general and senator, Robert F. Kennedy.
“These statements were not only false and defamatory, but outrageously so, and were published by defendants with knowledge of their actual falsity or in reckless disregard of the truth for the apparent purpose of creating a salacious story designed to drive internet traffic to HuffPost’s website,” the lawsuit said.
A HuffPost spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday that it doesn't comment on pending litigation.
In the fall of 2018, the United States Senate was holding confirmation hearings on Kavanaugh’s nomination to become a Supreme Court justice.
Kavanaugh, Evans and Douglas Kennedy were alumni of Georgetown Prep.
During the controversy surrounding Kavanaugh’s nomination, Feinberg wrote the article that Evans’ lawsuit said was sensational, depicting a wild “alcohol-and-drug-fueled” culture at Georgetown Prep in the early 1980s.
The lawsuit said in HuffPost’s zeal to create a sensational article about Kavanaugh’s years at Georgetown Prep and thereby drive traffic to its website, it fabricated the claim that Kennedy and Evans “helped score” the illegal narcotics that killed Douglas Kennedy’s older brother, David, in April 1984.
“Defendants had no sources to support their outrageously false and defamatory statements about Derrick Evans and Douglas Kennedy. Nor did Defendants make any effort whatsoever to contact Mr. Evans for comment before accusing him of not only of committing a crime, but of being responsible for the death of David Kennedy,” the lawsuit said. “Indeed, if Ms. Feinberg or her HuffPost editors had done even the most basic research of publicly available sources, she and they would have known, if they did not already know, that Mr. Evans actively assisted law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting the individuals who actually sold the illegal narcotics.”
The lawsuit said HuffPost ran a correction, but the correction also contained false information. HuffPost eventually changed the story removing any reference to Evans and the Kennedy brothers.
“Defendants’ statements were false, malicious and fabricated, and were published with a knowing, intentional, subjective awareness of, and/or reckless disregard of, their falsity,” Evans’ attorney, John Sneed, said. “Plaintiff has suffered damages as a result of the Defendants’ statements, including emotional distress and harm to his reputation.“
The lawsuit is seeking damages, including punitive, but doesn’t state an amount sought.
Evans, who is African American, obtained a full academic scholarship to Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, in 1982. He was one of the only black students at Georgetown Prep at the time.
After earning bachelors and masters degrees from Boston College, Evans became a history professor and lecturer on American social history and the civil rights movement. In 1992, he was awarded Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges’ Certificate of Distinction in Teaching.
In 2005, in the direct wake of Hurricane Katrina, Evans co-founded the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, which has directed over $5 million in critical funding to groups in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida, according to his lawsuit.
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Interesting development. Part of the fallout from the effort to take down Brett Kavanaugh.
The Huffington Post has tagged simply as "Left Bias" by Media Bias/Fact Check and it is a source we can use because it's left, but not extreme.
Here is what the service we rely on has to say:
Detailed Report
Factual Reporting: MOSTLY FACTUAL
Country: USA
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 48/180
History
Founded in 2005, HuffPost, also known as The Huffington Post is a news and commentary site headquartered in New York City. The Huffington Post was founded by Andrew Breitbart (Founder of Breitbart ), Arianna Huffington ( Former Executive Vice President of AOL Time Warner and Chairman of Betaworks and BuzzFeed ), Kenneth Lerer (Chairman of Buzzfeed) , and Jonah Peretti (CEO of BuzzFeed).
In March 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million and Arianna Huffington was named as president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, which included AOL properties such as Engadget and MapQuest. In 2015, Verizon bought AOL and the Huffington Post became part of Verizon. In 2016, Arianna Huffington resigned as editor-in-chief and former New York Times Johannesburg Bureau Chief Lydia Polgreen became editor-in-chief. In 2017, The Huffington Post name was shortened to HuffPost.
Funded by / Ownership
The HuffPost is currently owned by Oath Inc. , which is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. The website is funded through online advertising.
Analysis / Bias
Politico reports, that during the 2016 presidential elections, every article related to Donald Trump included a note at the bottom indicating Trump as being “racist”, “xenophobe”, “Misogynist”, however, after the election, HuffPost dropped the note.
In review, HuffPost publishes stories with strong emotionally loaded headlines such as “Comey Flips: ‘Vote for Democrats This Fall’” and “Trump Calls Female Reporter ‘So Obnoxious,’ Tells Her To Be Quiet.” HuffPost utilizes credible sources such as CBS News , New York Times , Politico, as well as blogs that are not known to us such as queensjewelvault.blogspot.com . Furthermore, HuffPost sources the Associated Press when covering world news such as “Mass Graves Suggest Systematic Killing Of Rohingya In Myanmar.” In general, a review of articles shows that more favor the left than the right.
A factual search reveals that HuffPost had a failed fact check in the past, but promptly removed the article when it was discovered. They also published an Unproven Claim that was not corrected and posted a Pants on Fire claim to social media. Finally, Science Based Medicine has criticized HuffPost for promiting dangerous, implausible pseudo-medicine.
Overall, we rate HuffPost Left-Biased due to story selection that favors the left and Mostly Factual in reporting due to proper sourcing with a few failed fact checks. (5/13/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 7/26/2019)
I will follow this lawsuit.
If Professor Evans prevails it will be interesting to see if Media Bias/Fact Check moves the Huffington Post over to the extreme section. The Huffington Post convicted of telling a lie they knew was a lie would demand it!
I am willing to bet that MBFC will not change the rating for HuffPost and that Newstalkers will still treat MBFC as the "Bible" for what sources are acceptable to publish or use here.
I'll take on the role of odds maker. I'll put it at 2-1 that MBFC won't make any change no matter what happens. As for NT, MBFC is our official ratings service. We have to accept that. We live under those rules. It's ok Tex, remember we can overcome!
2-1?
Generous, but not enough. Maybe 3-1? or 4-1?
It's 2-1 in favor. You mean it should be odds on! Maybe your'e right! Ok I'll give em the same odds Man-O-War once got 1-9. That's the pari-mutuel limit!
I suppose a mere 50% of the time plus one is "mostly" factual. I'm not sure it actually achieves even that standard, though.
I sure hope he does!!
The amazing thing is that Huff Post stopped short of claiming that Kavanaugh forced Kennedy to ingest coke at gunpoint. Shocking restraint for it.
They didn't need to go that far. The idea was to make it seem that these were all wild unrestrained kids who were given to excess via alcohol, drugs and sex and therefore capable of doing anything!
Anything and everything in their failed attempt to derail Kavanaugh's confirmation.
Pathetic bunch of moronic loons.
It was the low point for our civilization - to aggressively defame an honorable decent man simply to keep him off the Supreme Court. They did it without conscience or shame!
Which merely made his confirmation, and their tears, all the more enjoyable!
And they are still going at it. Nadler is suing for Kavanaugh's records from his time in the White House, in hopes of finding something they can impeach him on. All in an attempt to redo the confirmation hearing.
Trump had the guts to stand by the nomination all the way! How many of those Republicans in congress would have had the fortitude?
That's right....they have no shame....None!
Just wait and see the meltdown if the Presidential election doesn't go their way again. I need to invent a sham wow crying towel.
Germany already beat you to that with the large commercial sized ones.