Despite largely ignoring Dominion’s defamation case against Fox News and other right-wing outlets, the Media Research Center insisted on demonizing CNN over a defamation case filed by Zachary Young. MRC writer Nicholas Fondacaro not only served up a wildly biased anti-CNN narrative, he was rewarded by Young’s lawyers with a softball interview with Young. Since then, Young was seeing visions of dollar signs and plotting to sue other media outlets, which Fondacaro dutifully documented.
A June 2025 post by Fondacaro gloated that “In a Monday morning X post, chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt announced that he would be leaving CNN “after 8 terrific years.” But Marquardt’s departure comes four months after he cost the network several million dollars and tarnished their reputation with a maliciously defamatory report against Navy veteran Zachary Young.” Fondacaro didn’t mention that CNN issued an apology for the report four months after the report per Young’s request, and that the story was taken off its website — all of which was prior to his lawsuit — and that when CNN and others asked Young to explain himself, “he obfuscated, behaved unprofessionally, lied, and hid.” Still, Fondacaro gloated even more the next day while he had a fit of Oliver Darcy Derangement Syndrome:
As NewsBusters was quick to report on Monday, Alex Marquardt announced that he was becoming CNN’s former chief national security correspondent. The timing and details were suspicious since he didn’t announce where he would be going and it happened just four months after CNN was found liable for malicious defamation because of his shoddy reporting. But former CNN media flunky Oliver Darcy had the scuttlebutt, in his Status newsletter, that Marquardt was indeed fired after a legal review from CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery regarding the defamation trial.
Despite the fact that CNN was liable for malicious defamation because Marquardt’s malice and lies against Navy veteran Zachary Young, Darcy mourned for his former colleague getting blindsided by the firing. “CNN stood by Alex Marquardt through a high-profile defamation trial—until a message from a company lawyer following the settlement set off a chain of events that ended with his sudden ouster,” he moped.
According to Darcy’s sources, Marquardt thought he was in clear following the end of the trial and punitive damages settlement agreement on January 17. “In fact, CNN’s behavior after the suit suggested anything but concern,” Darcy wrote. “The network elevated Marquardt to chief national security correspondent in September 2023, after the case had been filed. He continued to report on high-profile assignments, regularly filled in on the anchor desk, and remained a visible face of CNN’s reporting.”
Later that month, Fondacaro cheered a Young trollsuit agaisnt a different outlet:
On Tuesday, the Bay County, Florida courthouse hosted the first hearing of Zachary Young v Puck News, one of the many defamation cases brought by the Navy veteran in the fallout of his successful defamation trial against CNN. A major motion was on the docket as Judge William Henry had to weigh the evidence in Puck’s motion to dismiss the case, and for the parties to move forward with discovery. And it’s going to be a long 30 days until Judge Henry filed his ruling.
As NewsBusters was first to report about the case, Young accused left-leaning Puck News, via the reporting of “entertainment law expert” Eriq Gardner, of choosing to “repeat and spread the false claims of CNN.” Additionally, Young suggested Puck was trying to dismiss the merits of the case by suggesting he only won because of the venue and the Florida court system.
Being a pivotal motion that would obviously determine the future of the case, and possibly have knock-on effects for Young’s other cases, Judge Henry pressed both parties on the merits of their arguments.
[…]To defend their objection to the motion to dismiss, Young’s counsel Jason Grieves pointed out that Puck’s reporting claimed “CNN’s real problem was geographical. The trial was set in Panama City, one of Florida’s deepest red outposts.”
Judge Henry pointed out that Bay County was a deep red and that it could have played into a decision to have the CNN case tried there. But he did go on to defend the trial by pointing out the great extents he went through to ensure an unbiased jury that could render a just verdict:
We don’t remember Fondacaro ever disclosing that Young’s CNN lawsuit was tried in a “deep red” county and, thus, would be predisposed to ruling in his favor. He concluded:
Again, Judge Henry was tough on both parties; likely because of the gravity of the motion and both sides needed to bring their A game. He also didn’t appear to tip his hand on which way he was leaning. Partially because of a busy court schedule, he would not be ready to issue a ruling for 30 days. But he did want both parties to prepare for discovery in the event he decided the case could proceed.
In a July 2 post, Fondacaro cited the Young-CNN trial as an example of how the “liberal media” can be held accountable. He didn’t mention the $787 million Fox News agreed to pay Dominion to settle that lawsuit. The following day, Fondacaro advocated for Young again:
One of the things all news websites have in common is bylines, this NewsBusters piece even has one. It’s how news outlets let you know who wrote a particular article; it could have one or multiple authors and/or contributors. But during a defamation hearing against The Associated Press on Thursday, their lawyer argued that punitive damages couldn’t be sought because there were no records of who authored or even edited the allegedly defamatory article about Navy veteran Zachary Young.
As NewsBusters previously reported, Young accused the AP of defamation stemming from a report they did covering his victory over CNN in a defamation trial earlier this year. Young took issue with how the AP reported that he “helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan;” and later pointed to the AP Stylebook to argue that it accused him of the crime of human smuggling.
Fondacaro used an Aug. 29 post to admit bad news for his buddy Young:
After waiting more than month for a decision, Judge William Scott Henry of Florida’s 14th Judicial Circuit granted two motions to dismiss on a pair of defamation suits against The Associated Press and Puck News. The cases were brought by Navy veteran Zachary Young in the wake of his successful defamation case brought against CNN in the same court and before the same judge.
Young took issue with the framing and language use in the AP and Puck’s reports of his victory over CNN. He insisted that they tried to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his win and used similar language to CNN against him.
Judge Henry opened both his rulings with the same quip comparing the cases to a bad sequel that was nothing more than a money grab:
[…]Both cases were dismissed with prejudice, meaning Young couldn’t bring up new suits in that same vein, but it’s likely Young will appeal both rulings. NewsBusters will stay on these stories.
Fondacaro didn’t prove that Young wasn’t filing his trollsuits for the money. A few days later, Fondacaro appeared on Tim Graham’s podcast to complain about the “series of setbacks for Navy veteran Zachary Young in defamation cases against the Associated Press and Puck.”