A federal judge has said that a slander case against MSNBC can go forward. This is a big blow to the network’s reputation. An obstetrician-gynecologist named Dr. Mahendra Amin sued MSNBC and two of its well-known hosts, Rachel Maddow and Nicole Wallace, for sharing false information about him.
In 2020, sensationalist news stories said that Dr. Amin cut out the uteruses of female refugees at the Irwin County Detention Centre in Georgia when it wasn’t necessary. Even though there wasn’t any proof, MSNBC ran with the story and called Dr. Amin a “uterus collector” on national TV.
But NBC reporters Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley couldn’t find any evidence to back up the whistleblower’s claims. Even so, the story was published and shown on all of MSNBC’s channels by NBCUniversal’s standards department.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood looked over the case and wrote a harsh outline of it. “NBC investigated the whistleblower’s accusations, found no corroboration, and even undermined some claims, yet republished the accusations anyway,” Judge Wood said.
The case is mostly aimed at Nicole Wallace and Rachel Maddow. Wallace talked about the claims on the radio, even though there was no proof. At first, Maddow wasn’t sure about running the story, but she did it anyway, which may now cost her.
Dr. Amin tried to get NBC to take back the false claims, but they wouldn’t. More reviews, including one by the U.S. Senate, found no proof to back up the claims.
In his decision, Judge Wood made it clear that “there were no mass hysterectomies or high numbers of hysterectomies at the facility.” In fact, Dr. Amin only did two hysterectomies on prisoners.
The court made it clear that republishing charges based on hearsay does not release the defendant from responsibility. “If accusations against a plaintiff are based entirely on hearsay, the defendant remains potentially liable for defamation,” the judge told us.
The lawsuit is a lesson that trying to get more views and make news shouldn’t mean sacrificing honesty and truth. Many bad things can happen because of fake reporting, and it is the job of the media to make sure their stories are correct.
The decision has big effects on MSNBC and its hosts, who could now be sued for big money fines and have their reputations ruined. As the case goes on, it will show how accountable the media is and how committed they are to telling the truth.
