In a stunner that the New York Times confirms is a first for some 50 years, a jury has determined the legacy publication, which is at the cutting edge of wokism in much of its agenda these days, is liable for defamation.
And it has been ordered to pay $9.25 million in damages for defaming a former college basketball player, Kai Spears, by falsely linking him to a fatal 2023 shooting.
A report at the Daily Mail revealed Times reporter Billy Witz, in a March 2023 article, wrongly identified Spears as a passenger in the car at the scene of a shooting that left Jamea Harris, 23, dead.
“Witz relied on an anonymous source he described as a ‘high-level person, professional,’ but later admitted that the article contained a clear mistake,” the report confirmed.
The Times said it was “disappointed” in the result because it was an “honest mistake.”
The verdict resulted from a nine-day trial in federal court in the Northern District of Alabama, and came from an eight-person jury.
The Times said it would “review” its options.
Spears’ lawyer, Matt Glover, said the result could “improve journalism throughout the country.”
The report explained, “Former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, who played for the Crimson Tide from 2020-23, and his childhood friend, Michael Lynn Davis, were ultimately charged with capital murder in connection with Harris’s death. Davis was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
The Times didn’t address its wrong report until June 2023, after Spears already had sued, eventually clarifying that the person at the scene was student manager Cooper Lee, not Spears.
Even then it blamed “a person familiar with the case.”
The paper had left its original report untouched even though school officials and Spears’ father confirmed Spears was not present.
Spears charged that the publication failed to “do their due diligence.”
He documented “multiple threats,” “people telling me to kill myself, people telling me I’m a murderer, we’re a team full of murdersrs.”
He said he “did nothing wrong,” and then was victimized by the “false narrative.”
New York Times loses defamation suit, ordered to pay $9.25M to former Alabama basketball player https://t.co/qqRps9TsWc pic.twitter.com/GGOYw8K351
— New York Post (@nypost) August 21, 2026
Bob Hogue at RedState posted an opinion:
NYTimes Loses Defamation Case for First Time in Over 50 Years, Must Pay Slimed B’ball Player $9M+ | Bob Hoge, RedState
Defamation lawsuits: they’re every journalist’s nightmare. You either intentionally or unintentionally misrepresent the facts, causing your company to fork over… pic.twitter.com/2it4goobBb
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) August 21, 2026
“As a strong First Amendment advocate, I am always cautious about punishing news outlets or individuals for expressing their opinions. That being said, I have exactly zero sympathy for the New York Times, which just lost its first defamation case in over half a century and has to pay a maligned college basketball player close to 10 million bucks.
“They have been so slanted and so biased for so long now that it’s a wonder this hasn’t happened before. So many of their stories rely on ‘unnamed sources’ and ‘people close to the situation.’ That came back to bite them in the posterior this time around.”
He said, “It’s satisfying seeing the left-wing rag that is the Bible for so many progressives facing accountability. However, it doesn’t fix the Glaring Media Hypocrisy Story of the Modern Age: the Grey Lady also took home a Pulitzer in 2018 for its exhaustive, wall-to-wall coverage of the Trump Russia collusion story. The only problem? The whole thing was a Deep State hoax, and the Times pushed it as hard as anyone. My recommendation: pay the $10 million to the young basketball player you defamed, then return that fraudulent Pulitzer. Until then, you will remain in the eyes of so many as exactly what you so often are: ‘fake news.'”
