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ANNOUNCER: THIS IS WLWT NEWS 5 WITH BREAKING NEWS. MIKE: DATA BREAKING NEWS IS THE DAVID AND GOLIATH FIGHT BETWEEN A COVINGTON CATHOLIC TEENAGER, AND "THE WASHINGTON POST" IS OVER. AND THE LITTLE GUY DID NOT WIN THIS ONE. GOOD EVENING. I’M MIKE DARDIS. SHEREE: AND I’M SHEREE PAOLELLO. IT STEMS FROM THE VIRAL VIDEO OF STUDENT NICK SANDMANN, FACING OFF WITH AMERICAN INDIAN ACTIVIST NATHAN PHILLIPS. SANDMANN SUED THE POST FOR A QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLARS, SAYING THE NEWSPAPER LIBELED HIM. TONIGHT, WLWT NEWS 5 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER TODD DYKES EXPLAINS WHY THE LAWSUIT IS NOW OVE TODD? TODD: THE BOTTOM LINE, NO LIBEL, NO DEFAMATION. THE POST, ACCORDING TO THE FEDERAL JUDGE, DID ITS JOB. AT ISSUE? THIS INCIDENT ON THE STEPS OF THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL IN JANUARY. NICK SANDMANN SAYS AS HE STOOD FACE-TO-FACE WITH NATHAN PHILLIPS, HE WAS TRYING TO DEFUSE THE SITUATION, BRING SOME CALM. THE FEDERAL JUDGE SAID HE HAD NO REASON TO DISAGREE WIT SANDMANN’S POSITION. BUT THE JUDGE CONCLUDED THAT PHILLIPS WAS ENTITLED TO REACH HIS OWN CONCLUSION ABOUT WHAT HE, PHILLIPS, FELT IN THAT MOMENT. AND WHEN HE SHARED THOSE OPINIONS WITH THE WASHINGTON POST, THE POST DID NOTHING WRONG IN PRINTING THEM FEDERAL JUDGE WILLIAM BERTELSMAN WROTE ON PART, THAT PHILLIPS’ CONCLUSIONS QUOTE, "MAY HAVE BEEN ERRONEOUS, BUT, THEY ARE OPINION PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT. AND THE POST IS NOT LIABLE FOR PUBLISHING THESE OPINIONS. THIS IS THE FIRST LAWSUIT FILED BY NICK SANDMANN AGAIN NATIONAL MEDIA OUTLETS TO BE DECIDED. OTHER LAWSUITS AGAINST CNN AND NBC NEWS ARE BOTH STILL PE

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A $250 million lawsuit -- filed by the lawyers for the family of Nick Sandmann against The Washington Post -- has been dismissed by a federal judge. Judge William Bertelsman issued the ruling Friday."The Court accepts Sandmann's statement that, when he was standing motionless in the confrontation with Phillips, his intent was to calm the situation and not to impede or block anyone," the judge wrote."However, Phillips did not see it that way. He concluded that he was being 'blocked' and not allowed to 'retreat.' He passed the conclusions on to The Post. They may have been erroneous, but, as discussed above, they are opinion protected by the First Amendment," Bertelsman wrote. "And The Post is not liable for publishing these opinions,"Sandmann, 16, is the Covington Catholic High School junior at the center of a controversy after his face was depicted across social media, along with Native American protester Nathan Phillips.Attorneys Lin Wood and Todd McMurtry filed the lawsuit on behalf of Sandmann and his family. It was the first in a series of lawsuits filed against several media outlets.The lawsuit claims that the Post "wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' souvenir cap on a school field trip to the January 18 March for Life in Washington, D.C." The lawsuit adds that the Post engaged in "a modern-day form of McCarthyism" and "ignored basic journalist standards.""They didn't investigate it," Wood said. "They got it wrong. They published the false narrative and did not publish the truth."The encounter happened in January, during a trip Sandmann and classmates from Covington Catholic High School made to an anti-abortion event.At one point, Sandmann came face-to-face with a Native American man named Nathan Phillips. Some considered Sandmann's reaction to Phillips disrespectful, or even worse, with thousands of people weighing in on social media.But the initial perception many people had of the interaction changed as more reports and more video surfaced.An attorney for the paper, Kevin Baine, defended the reports in question and argued Sandmann's claims don't rise to the level of defamation.