Covington Catholic students cast as aggressors at the Lincoln Memorial
■ The claim
Based on a short viral clip, national outlets portrayed a group of Covington Catholic High School students, especially junior Nick Sandmann, as having surrounded, taunted and blocked a Native American elder, Nathan Phillips, near the Lincoln Memorial.
■ What actually happened
Longer video that surfaced within days showed a more complicated scene, including a separate group shouting at the students before Phillips walked into their crowd. On March 1, 2019, The Washington Post published an editor's note saying later evidence contradicted or failed to confirm its initial accounts that a student blocked Phillips, that the students had taunted his group beforehand, and that they were trying to start a conflict. Sandmann sued several outlets; CNN, the Post and NBCUniversal each settled for undisclosed sums. His suits against The New York Times, ABC, CBS, Rolling Stone and Gannett were dismissed because courts treated the challenged statements as Phillips's protected opinion, a ruling the Sixth Circuit upheld in August 2023.
■ The proof
Washington Post editor's note of March 1, 2019, plus settlements by CNN (Jan. 7, 2020), The Washington Post (July 24, 2020) and NBCUniversal (Dec. 17, 2021). Settlement terms were never disclosed and none of the settlements included a court finding of defamation.
■ Original reporting
- ABC7: early coverage, 'Students in MAGA hats taunt indigenous elder' (Jan. 2019)https://abc7.com/post/boys-in-maga-hats-mock-indigenous-elder-in-dc-video/5097427/
- Sinclair/WJLA: 'A more complicated picture emerges' after fuller videohttps://wjla.com/news/nation-world/catholic-high-schoolers-spark-national-controversy-a-more-complicated-picture-emerges
■ Corrections, findings & records
- The Hill: Washington Post issues editor's note over early Covington coverage (Mar. 2019)https://thehill.com/homenews/media/432305-washington-post-issues-editors-note-over-early-covington-coverage
- FOX19: CNN settles lawsuit with Nick Sandmann (Jan. 7, 2020)https://www.fox19.com/2020/01/07/cnn-settles-lawsuit-with-nick-sandmann
- TheWrap: Washington Post settles Sandmann's $250M defamation suit (July 2020)https://www.thewrap.com/washington-post-settles-kentucky-student-nick-sandmanns-250-million-defamation-suit-terms-undisclosed/
- Legal Insurrection: NBC settles Nick Sandmann lawsuit (Dec. 2021)https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/12/nbc-settles-nick-sandmann-lawsuit/
- FOX19: Sixth Circuit upholds dismissal of suits against NYT, ABC, CBS, Rolling Stone, Gannett (Aug. 2023)https://www.fox19.com/2023/08/17/three-judge-panel-upholds-dismissal-nick-sandmanns-lawsuits-against-news-outlets
■ Wayback Machine copies
Stories sometimes get edited after publication. These links open the Internet Archive's earliest snapshot of each original.
- Archive copy: ABC7: early coverage, 'Students in MAGA hats taunt indigenous elder' (Jan. 2019)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://abc7.com/post/boys-in-maga-hats-mock-indigenous-elder-in-dc-video/5097427/
- Archive copy: Sinclair/WJLA: 'A more complicated picture emerges' after fuller videohttps://web.archive.org/web/2/https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/catholic-high-schoolers-spark-national-controversy-a-more-complicated-picture-emerges
■ Grade
RETRACTED: The outlet itself retracted, corrected, or settled. How we grade →