In legal news, CNN recently settled what is being described as a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High school student Nick Sandmann over its false and misleading coverage of a viral confrontation with a Native American elder that left viewers with the impression that the teenager and his pals were being racist provocateurs.

Turns out that Sandmann’s group had been taunted with racially charged, profane rants by the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Nobody knows, for sure, exactly how much money exchanged hands, but we do know that the Kentucky teen was initially asking for $250 million in damages for the “emotional distress Nicholas and his family suffered” in the fallout of the network’s reporting.

CNN hasn’t issued a public statement since the settlement.

The fact that there was agreement shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Manipulating footage to actually change its meaning is a complete violation of journalistic ethics.

The only exception to this rule is if you’re editing a Michael Moore movie, in which case, it’s mandatory.

Sandmann’s attorney, Todd McMurtry, told Fox News that lawsuits against “as many as 13 other defendants will be filed in 30 to 40 days.”

Among them: ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, Slate, The Hill and Gannett, which owns the Cincinnati Inquirer, according to McMurtry. Additionally, separate lawsuits against the Washington Post and NBC have already been filed.

Given the result of the lawsuit against CNN, it’s safe to say that many of these news organizations will likely come to the bargaining table as well.

Some will feel it more than others. For example, if Sandmann is successful with a $250 million lawsuit against the Washington Post, owner Jeff Bezos will only be afford another 464 of these kinds of settlements.

If you ask me, even at that dollar amount, these news organizations are getting off easy.

Let’s not forget their sin — they maliciously defamed a child, put his safety at risk and potentially limited the pool of what schools he can get into, jobs he can be hired for and people who are willing to date him … for the rest of his life. And none of them have even had to admit guilt, issue a formal apology or put any real effort into correcting the record.

Thanks to Google and shoddy memories, Sandmann will forever be known as the racist kid who harassed a Native American elder, even though there’s absolutely no truth to it whatsoever.

Shamefully, at the same time, in 2020 America you get in far more trouble for telling a joke that falls flat, than for actually slandering a child.

Superstar funny woman Roseanne Barr had her top-rated network sitcom taken away from her by ABC, due to one lame joke about former Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett, that she apologized for, repeatedly.

The mainstream media tried to destroy an innocent young man’s life and they got off with a hefty fine. Roseanne told some bad jokes on Twitter and her career is over. Is it called the First Amendment or the First-ish?

To add insult to injury, ABC announced that Roseanne’s former show, now re-named “The Connors,” will do a live broadcast on Feb. 11 as the primary votes in New Hampshire are being counted. Which is very exciting news if you happen to be an insomniac.

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Mixed messages and conflicting ideas in our pandemic age “The Connors” without Roseanne is like the Jackson Five without Michael.

Have fun with Tito, ABC!

You should always correct the record when you get something factually wrong, and at least attempt to repair the damage that you’ve done to an innocent party.

If you tell a joke that doesn’t work, scratch it from your act, and move on. Apologize, if you think you should. But as longtime Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn used to say, “no harm, no foul, no blood, no ambulance.”

Sadly, the opposite is true.

John Phillips can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on “The Morning Drive with John Phillips and Jillian Barberie” on KABC/AM 790.