NBC Universal has agreed to settle a federal defamation lawsuit filed by a Georgia gynecologist over coverage of allegations that he performed mass hysterectomies on female detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. The stories aired in September 2020 on MSNBC shows hosted by stars Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood ruled in June that "the undisputed evidence establishes that multiple NBC statements are false."
She found "there were no mass hysterectomies or high numbers of hysterectomies at the facility," contrary to the allegations from a whistleblower; that Dr. Mahendra Amin, the plaintiff in the case, had performed only two hysterectomies on female detainees; and that he was not a "uterus collector," in the whistleblower's memorable phrase.
Judge Wood noted that the network was not protected by the fact that MSNBC's journalists were relaying what the judge called "verifiably false" statements by others rather than asserting them on their own authority. The whistleblower's complaint had been filed by a coalition of progressive advocacy groups.
News of a settlement, reflected in court documents filed Thursday, was first reported by The Washington Post's Jeremy Barr. NBC declined to comment through a spokesperson. Dr. Amin's attorneys did not reply to a request for comment. In the court filings, the two sides said they are "diligently working to finalize the language of the settlement agreement." Amin had sued for $10 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages.
More settle, rather than fight, defamation suits
Several media and social media companies have sought recently to settle to resolve thorny litigation, especially over defamation matters. The Walt Disney Co. recently settled a case filed by President Trump to resolve his lawsuit over incorrect statements by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. The company paid $15 million toward a future presidential library plus $1 million in legal fees.
Similarly, Warner Bros. Discovery settled a case after a Florida jury awarded $5 million in compensatory damages to a security consultant portrayed in a CNN story as charging exorbitant prices to evacuate Afghans from Kabul after it fell to the Taliban in 2021. The jury had not yet decided on punitive damages when the settlement was reached.
Meta and X, formerly Twitter, paid Trump $25 million and $10 million respectively to resolve his suits seeking damages for being bumped off the sites after the January 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. (Trump said he gave a "big discount" to X controlling owner Elon Musk, now overseeing Trump's effort to slash costs throughout the federal government.)
By contrast, longtime Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register, owned by Gannett Co., just filed a motion to dismiss Trump's lawsuit alleging fraud over its inaccurate polling showing that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris had a lead in Iowa just days before Election Day.
A doctor contests a whistleblower's charged allegations
MSNBC's reporting was sparked by a whistleblower's complaint. She claimed women held at the ICE facility had received traumatizing care or different procedures than they expected at Amin's hands. The complaint was filed with the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the Irwin County Detention Center.
In a MSNBC segment that aired on Sept. 15, 2020, Jacob Soboroff, a correspondent who covers immigration, interviewed the whistleblower, Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the facility.
"You're quoted in the complaint as saying, 'That's his specialty, he's the uterus collector,'" Soboroff asks Wooten. "Is that how the people refer to this doctor?"
"That's how the detainees referred to this physician," replied Wooten. "They referred to him — I had a detainee that asked me, she said, 'Well, what is he doing, miss? Is he collecting all of our uteruses?'"
In introducing a related segment, Maddow quoted a detainee's account in the complaint: "When I met all these women who had the surgeries I thought this was, like, an experimental concentration camp[,] it was like they're experimenting with our bodies."
NBC had argued that its segments focused on the accusations that Amin had performed "unnecessary and unconsented-to medical procedures on detainees at ICDC, including large numbers of hysterectomies," according to the legal filings.
Judge Wood said the actual focus was on "mass hysterectomies," citing the amount of time spent on the question, and the network's headlines, including "WHISTLEBLOWER: HIGH NUMBER OF HYSTERECTOMIES AT ICE DETENTION CTR." and "COMPLAINT: MASS HYSTERECTOMIES PERFORMED ON WOMEN AT ICE FACILITY."
Amin received death threats and bomb threats, lost patients, lost the ability to provide medical service to the ICE facility as a result of MSNBC's broadcasts, his lawyers say. They also say he's withdrawn from social and community activities he previously enjoyed.
No details were given about the proposed terms of the settlement.
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