MSNBC’s parent company NBCUniversal is going to trial after being sued for defamation by Dr. Mahendra Amin for $30 million.
Amin worked as a gynecologist at a Georgia Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, where he treated women being detained. Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the Southern District of Georgia found in her ruling that Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Chris Hayes made multiple “verifiably false” allegations about Amin.
A nurse at the facility, Dawn Wooten, alleged Amin was performing “mass hysterectomies” and that he was known as the “uterus collector.” The Washington Free Beacon reported her claims were based on hearsay and have been proven false.
The discovery process of the lawsuit shows how MSNBC and NBC journalists and executives had concerns over the authenticity of Wooten’s claims, but chose to move forward with their coverage anyway.
NBCUniversal’s deputy director of standards Chris Scholl said to Hayes in a conference call that Wooten “has no direct knowledge of this stuff “and that Amin “has a pretty clean record.”
While Hayes said he initially “discounted the whole thing,” he interviewed Wooten on his show, titling the segment, “ICE whistleblower speaks out, alleges mass hysterectomies performed on migrant women.”
Maddow ran her own coverage of Amin on her show. “The nurse says she and her fellow nurses, quote, questioned among ourselves, like, goodness, he’s taking everybody’s stuff out, that’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector … He’s taking all their uteruses out or he’s taking their tubes out.”
MSNBC’s coverage spawned calls for investigations by the U.S. Senate. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in its report, “The Subcommittee did not substantiate the allegations of mass hysterectomies on ICDC detainees. Records indicate that Dr. Amin performed two hysterectomies on ICDC detainees between 2017 and 2019. Both procedures were deemed medically necessary by ICE.”
Judge Wood has ordered a jury trial in the case to determine whether MSNBC’s coverage should be considered “actual malice,” the standard for defamation.
While NBCUniversal could settle outside of court, they are opting to move forward, the Free Beacon reported.
This should be a cautionary tale to other networks — left and right — as to what happens when journalistic standards are foregone for partisanship.
MSNBC is well known for its hatred of former President Donald Trump and took every opportunity to attack his administration.
In this case, Wooten’s claims were amplified for the sole purpose of going after Amin to make Trump look bad.
Maddow saw another opportunity to criticize Trump’s immigration policies in trying to lead viewers to believe Amin was mutilating and abusing women.
Hayes seems to have pursued the story for a similar reason.
Aside from Amin, perhaps the victim readers should feel sorry for in this whole debacle is the American taxpayer.
Our tax dollars went toward an investigation by a subcommittee that was sparked by MSNBC’s phony coverage.
Much like several other major news networks, MSNBC’s credibility since Trump’s time in office — and beyond — is in the gutter.
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