{"id":655518,"date":"2026-08-21T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655518"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:16:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:16:44","slug":"new-york-times-loses-bigly-in-defamation-case-of-former-university-of-alabama-basketball-player-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655518","title":{"rendered":"New York Times loses bigly in defamation case of former University of Alabama basketball player"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Alabama jury awarded $9.25 million in damages on Thursday to a former Alabama college basketball player who sued The New York Times two years ago after it defamed him in an article.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit from former University of Alabama men\u2019s basketball team player Kai Spears stemmed from a bogus report that the Times filed after the 2023 murder of a Birmingham mother named\u00a0Jamea Harris.<\/p>\n

Citing an anonymous person familiar with the investigation, Times reporter Billy Witz wrote that Spears had been a passenger in a car involved in the shooting, according to AL.com<\/a>. That turned out to be false.<\/p>\n

The only thing true about the story was that Harris\u2019 murder did involve a University of Alabama player \u2014 just not Spears:<\/p>\n

\n

23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris life ended tragically early Sunday morning following a shooting near The Strip in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Harris\u2019 death has been on hard on her entire family. Former @AlabamaMBB<\/a> player Darius Miles and another man face capital murder charges. pic.twitter.com\/sJsENt18BU<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Juan Hustle (@JuanHustle) January 16, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After the story\u2019s publication in March of 2023, the University of Alabama\u2019s own athletic department came to Spears\u2019 defense, according to the university\u2019s student paper, The Crimson White<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour story is inaccurate,\u201d UA Athletics wrote in a statement to the Times. \u201cBased on the information we have, there were no current student-athletes present at the scene other than Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley, who are both fully cooperating witnesses. From the outset, UA Athletics has fully cooperated with law enforcement and supported their investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spears, meanwhile, issued a social media statement also refuting the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have one thing to say \u2013 the report in the New York Times was 100% inaccurate and the writer had complete disregard for the truth,\u201d he wrote on Instagram. \u201cI am trying to process and cope with these false statements that somehow have been published and then seen by so many.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo thankful to Alabama Athletics for refuting it on my behalf. More than anything \u2026 I remain completely heartbroken by the tragic death that occurred that night,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

His father also condemned the Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just incredibly disappointed in the irresponsible and demonstrably false reporting by the New York Times,\u201d his father said. \u201cWe are exploring all legal options at this time. I will have no further comment, instead deferring to the University of Alabama\u2019s statement on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet not until Spears finally filed two months later in May of 2023 did the Times even have the decency to issue a correction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Wednesday, Spears filed a defamation suit against The Times that included new details about the incident,\u201d read the correction. \u201cBased on that information, editors assigned further reporting, which determined that the other person at the scene was not Spears but Cooper Lee, a student manager for the team. The Times regrets the error in the initial report.\u201d<\/p>\n

After The Times \u2014 known by many conservatives as The New York Slime \u2014 lost their suit this week, they predictably cried foul.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake,\u201d a spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cWe thank the jury for its service, but believe the verdict and award of damages are contrary to law and not supported by the evidence. We are reviewing our legal options.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

BREAKING: Jury sides with former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears in his defamation case against the New York Times.<\/p>\n

Jury orders the newspaper to pay him roughly $9.25 million in damages.<\/p>\n

Will have a full story later pic.twitter.com\/HZccWGVLHF<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ryan Phillips (@JournoRyan) August 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In its own reporting about getting its ass handed to it in court, the Times shamelessly boasted how it had\u00a0\u201cnot lost a defamation lawsuit brought in the United States over one of its articles in more than 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those defeats came in 1964\u2019s New York Times v Sullivan<\/em>, brought by Montgomery police commissioner L. B. Sullivan over a newspaper ad criticizing police over their treatment of Civil Rights protesters,\u201d according to AL.com.<\/p>\n

The Times is also currently facing a $15 billion defamation suit brought by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Alabama jury awarded $9.25 million in damages on Thursday to a former Alabama college basketball player who sued The New York Times two years ago after it defamed him in an article. The lawsuit from former University of Alabama men\u2019s basketball team player Kai Spears stemmed from a bogus report that the Times filed… Continue reading New York Times loses bigly in defamation case of former University of Alabama basketball player<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":655499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=655518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/655499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}