CNN analyst Joe Lockhart was quickly reminded of his network’s settled lawsuit Tuesday evening after referring to RNC speaker and former Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann as a “snot-nose entitled kid.”
“I’m watching tonight because it’s important. But I don’t have to watch this snot-nose entitled kid from Kentucky,” Mr. Lockhart told roughly 130,000 Twitter followers.
A wave of criticism followed as observers noted the undisclosed settlement in a $275 million lawsuit that Mr. Sandmann filed against CNN, NBCUniversal and The Washington Post over January 2019 reporting.
pic.twitter.com/HPiYe2Kcxz https://t.co/5TxPxdJ4Fh
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2020
The teenager’s life was turned upside-down as networks reported on his confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial.
“I fought back hard to expose the media for what they did to me and won a personal victory,” Mr. Sandmann told the RNC audience. “While much more must be done, I look forward to the day that the media returns to providing balanced, responsible and accountable news coverage.”
Some of the responses to Mr. Lockhart’s personal insult of the young man include:
- Radio host Mark Levin: “CNN’s slobbering mouthpiece and bloated Clinton crony, Joe Lockhart, is a hemorrhoid on the body politic.”
- Emily Zanotti of The Daily Wire: “It’s rare to watch someone fall into an obvious trap in real time, but it happens.”
- Becket Adams of The DC Examiner: “Keep talking and you’ll probably end up paying for his college.”
- Comedian Tim Young: “You just hate Nick Sandmann because CNN has had to pay him exponentially more than you.”
Mr. Lockhart deflected the negative feedback by spotlighting his critics’ Christian faith.
“Taking a lot of personal attacks for saying i had no interest in hearing from the young Sandmann last night. Many of them are unprintable,” he tweeted Wednesday. “It is uncanny though how many of them have the word Christian or Jesus in their profile.”
The media watchdog NewsBusters said it “sounds like Lockhart is feeling sorry for himself when he should be feeling sorry for Sandmann and all the other innocent people who’ve been victimized by the liberal media ’war machine,’ as Sandmann put it last night.”
I’m watching tonight because it’s important. But i don’t have to watch this snot nose entitled kid from Kentucky.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) August 26, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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