On June 12, 2024, the former News Director of a Nexstar Media Group-owned television station in Grand Rapids filed a defamation suit against the nation’s largest licensee of broadcast channels. Three months later, an attempt by Nexstar to dismiss the complaint filed by Stanton Tang was dismissed.
Now, more than two years later, a federal district court judge has ruled in favor of Tang. At the same time, co-plaintiff Amy Fox — former Asst. News Director of the station, WOOD-8, was victorious. However, the ruling went beyond defamation.
The result? Both will be receiving significant additions to their respective bank accounts, courtesy of the company founded and led by Perry Sook.
Cases filed by Tang and Fox were consolidated by Judge Robert Jonker of the U.S. District Court for the Western Division of Michigan’s Southern Division. A jury trial was held. On October 9, a verdict was reached.
The jury took a look at Tang’s claims independent of those from Fox. First, there was no unanimous finding of the jurors by a preponderance of the evidence that Tang proved his defamation claim against Nexstar. However, it did unanimously find that Tang proved his false light invasion of privacy claim against Nexstar.
What does this mean for Tang and for the owner of WOOD-8? Compensatory damages of $1.29 million were ordered by the jury, with exemplary damages of $300,000 added to the payout.
There’s more: the jury unanimously found that Tang proved his Michigan Employee Right to Know Act claim against Nexstar, and is entitled to $93,000 for the ERKA violation committed by Nexstar.
A redacted verdict form for Tang includes a hand-written note pad with jury instructions. It states:
Is [former WOOD-8 Executive Producer] Luke Stier an “agent” of Nexstar as of June 15 (he was still an employee). So therefor acting on behalf of Nexstar or as an “agent” of Nexstar. Therefore Nexstar liable.
Stier, along with colleague Madeline Odle, were fired from WOOD-8 along with Fox and Tang after Nexstar accused Stier and Odle of making public an internal newsroom memo to reporters “reminding them to consider the newsworthiness of events being covered during Pride Month in the West Michigan area.”
While the message was considered to be non-discriminatory in and of itself and consistent with Nexstar’s goals of providing unbiased reporting to its viewers, at least one Nexstar employee leaked the internal memo to the outside media; the company pinpointed Stier and Odle. A firestorm erupted, with Tang taking the brunt of the attacks against Nexstar and WOOD-8 despite the memo’s origination from Irving, Tex., where Nexstar is headquartered. Fox’s employment was also terminated.
Tang, who would become Business Development Representative for non-commercial Christian Contemporary Music-themed WCSG-FM 91.3 in Grand Rapids, filed his complaint in federal court with a jury demand as he sought redress for “the damages he suffered and continues to suffer as a result of the publication(s) of [Nexstar’s] materially false and defamatory statements” that subjected him to “undeserved scorn and humiliation” as a “respected television news editor with many years of experience.”
The long-awaited vindication for Tang arrived late last Friday from the jury.
For Fox, the jury’s verdict matched that of Tang, as it awarded $1.8 million for her false light invasion of privacy claim against Nexstar, exemplary damages of $500,000, and $93,000 for the ERKA violation under Michigan law.
