Navy Veteran Suing CNN For Defamation Breaks Down At Trial

U.S. Navy Veteran Zachary Young broke down in tears on the stand on Wednesday while testifying against CNN, explaining how a segment aired on the network in 2021 “wrecked” his life.

Young was asked about his career following the Nov. 11, 2021 airing of a segment on CNN that Young alleges falsely accused him of exploiting Afghans by offering evacuations from Afghanistan on a “black market” following the disastrous withdrawal. A court found Young “did not act illegally or criminally.” In his suit, Young alleges that the use of the term “black market” in the chyron “rendered Young permanently unemployable” because it implied Young was involved in illegal conduct. Young’s defense contracts expressly prohibited involvement in “black markets.”

Jurors were shown additional contracts on Wednesday between Young and other corporations that were slated to be renewed prior to the CNN’s airing of the segment.

“Have you had any work … since the CNN broadcast?” Young was asked during the hearing.

“No,” he testified, adding he has not made any money since the broadcast.

Young said that when he tried to offer evacuations following a crisis in Sudan, he received response on LinkedIn repeating the claims CNN aired about him. He went on to detail how the outlet’s alleged defamatory segment has affected his personal life.

Young said he has “always been very proud” of his ability “to get back up” after being “knocked down,” but that he’s “never had [his] life wrecked [like this].”

“I know I’m not the same man that I was. I know I’m not the same person my wife married,” he said. “I’m humiliated about that.”

He went on to say he “feel[s] like a total failure.”

Young explained that has been on “multiple medications” for depression and panic attacks. He began to cry, noting how his intimacy with his wife has been negatively affected, but that he does not know “if it’s [because of] the trauma, or the medicine, or both.”

“I’ve been the rock, I’ve always been the rock. I’m not the rock that she married. I’m not the one that has the stability. I have to lean on her for that, and it shouldn’t be that way,” Young said, further explaining that he “stopped taking care” of himself and “wasn’t using deodorant” or showering.

Young went on to describe the internal struggle he faces, explaining how he supports his elderly mother. Young said he’s “lying” to his mother when he tells her “it’s going to be okay” because he doesn’t know if things will be okay.

“I try to tell myself it’s going to be okay, too. Maybe in three or four years, everything changes, and I wake up from this thing that was a bad nightmare — I don’t believe myself,” Young said. “Once something like this happens, it’s forever, it’s permanent, it doesn’t go away. I feel like I’ve just been completely destroyed, embarrassed, and emasculated … And now my family is still trying to work through that with me.”