Nick Fondacaro broke a story on how debate moderate Jake Tapper’s show aired a nasty hit piece that spurred a defamation lawsuit from a man named Zachary Young working to evacuate people out of Afghanistan. Internal messages show profane malice from reporter Alex Marquardt and others. It’s no one’s idea of idealistic investigative journalism. It sounds like Gotcha journalism.
In messages found by Young’s lawyers, Marquardt said he wanted to “nail this Zachary Young mfucker” and thought the story would be Young’s “funeral.” On that declaration of wanting to “nail” Young, CNN editor Matthew Philips responded: “gonna hold you to that cowboy!”
When Marquardt notified Young that CNN would be publishing a story about him, and gave him only two hours to respond, he was upset when Young replied. Marquardt messaged a colleague, “fucking Young…
