NBC News Settles $30M Defamation Lawsuit After Fake News
NBCUniversal has settled a $30 million defamation lawsuit after several prominent hosts of the network falsely accused Dr. Mahendra Amin, a Georgia physician, of performing unneeded hysterectomies on women detained at an immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.The claims originated from a 2020 article that cited whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a former nurse at the facility, who alleged that Dr. Amin was leaving women “bruised” and performing “mass hysterectomies.” However, during his tenure, Dr. Amin only performed two hysterectomies, both deemed medically necesary and approved by ICE, with informed consent from the patients.
Investigations later found no substantiation for the allegations of mass hysterectomies, and records confirmed that both surgeries were performed according to medical standards. Despite questions about the validity of Wooten’s claims, NBC aired the accusations, leading to public statements from hosts like Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace. A judge ruled that these hosts made numerous “verifiably false” claims about Dr.Amin, indicating potential “actual malice” on the part of the network. The precise amount of the settlement has not been disclosed, and the case, due to go to trial, highlights issues regarding media accountability in reporting allegations without sufficient evidence.
NBCUniversal settled a $30 million defamation lawsuit after several of the network’s biggest hosts falsely accused a Georgia doctor of unnecessarily — and without authorization — performing hysterectomies on illegal immigrants in an ICE facility.
NBCUniversal reporters Julia Ainsley, Jacob Soboroff and Danielle Silva published an article in 2020 based on claims by whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a former nurse at a Georgia ICE facility. The story identified Dr. Mahendra Amin as the “uterus collector” and alleged Amin was leaving women “bruised and performed unnecessary procedures, including hysterectomies.”
Hosts like Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Chris Hayes went on to falsely accuse Amin of performing, according to the lawsuit, “mass hysterectomies on female detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Georgia.”
“NBC reported allegations that Dr. Amin performed hysterectomies that were unnecessary, unauthorized, or even botched,” according to the lawsuit. But Amin only performed two hysterectomies on women who were detained at the facility during his approximate three-and-a-half year span working there, according to the lawsuit. Each procedure required approval from ICE, according to the suit. Further, both patients “signed informed consent forms for their procedures.”
A Senate subcommittee investigation later found the allegations of mass hysterectomies could not be substantiated.
“Records indicated that Dr. Amin performed two hysterectomies on ICDC detainees, between 2017 and 2019. Both procedures were deemed medically necessary by ICE,” the Senate report found.
Amin sued NBCUniversal for defamation in 2021, denying the allegations. During the discovery process it was revealed that both MSNBC and NBC reporters and executives acknowledged they were unsure whether Wooten’s allegations were true but nonetheless reported them.
In one exchange, senior deputy head of Standards at NBCUniversal Chris Scholl hesitated to publish the initial article, writing in an email that Wooten “provides no evidence to back up her claims.”
“[Wooten] has no direct knowledge of what she’s claiming, is unable to name the doctor involved (if I understood correctly), and we are unable to verify any of it or determine whether there really is a story here,” Scholl said, according to details from a June order in the suit.
One of the reporters on the initial story even responded to Scholl that ICE was working on obtaining the numbers of hysterectomies performed at the facility but that they “believe the data will negate her claims.” Scholl also said in a call that Amin “has a pretty clean record.”
Scholl later approved the story for publication after he felt the reporters obtained enough independent information to support Wooten’s claims, according to the June order. This published story was the basis for subsequent false reporting by Maddow, Wallace, and Hayes.
Ultimately, Judge Lisa Godbet Wood ruled that Maddow, Wallace and Hayes made 39 “verifiably false” claims about Amin.
“In the end, we are left with this: NBC investigated the whistleblower letter’s accusations; that investigation did not corroborate the accusations and even undermined some; NBC republished the letter’s accusations anyway,” Wood wrote in a June order.
The judge found that a jury could reasonably conclude the network acted with “actual malice.”
It is unclear what sum the suit was settled for. The case was expected to go to jury trial in April in Georgia.
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