Patrick Reed threatens to sue CNN with a $450m defamation lawsuit, demands public apology
Patrick Reed, one of the biggest names to have defected from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, is suing CNN. Two journalists on the popular news outlet are being accused of making harmful statements about the golfer.
The golfer is demanding an apology or he'll move forward with a $450 million lawsuit.
#NEW: Patrick Reed is suing CNN for $450M. The 2018 Masters Champion is demanding an on-air public apology within 5 days or else the lawsuit will proceed, with claims that Jake Tapper and Bob Costas made statements that harmed him.🚨#NEW: Patrick Reed is suing CNN for $450M. The 2018 Masters Champion is demanding an on-air public apology within 5 days or else the lawsuit will proceed, with claims that Jake Tapper and Bob Costas made statements that harmed him.
NUCLRGOLF tweeted:
"Patrick Reed is suing CNN for $450M. The 2018 Masters Champion is demanding an on-air public apology within 5 days or else the lawsuit will proceed, with claims that Jake Tapper and Bob Costas made statements that harmed him."
The LIV Golf league is highly controversial due to its funding and the location in which it holds most of its business.
Still, LIV golfers appear to finally be pushing back against these narratives.
Why is Patrick Reed suing CNN anchors?
According to Golf Monthly, Reed's lawyer is Klayman's Law Group. They issued a statement detailing what they're upset with CNN for:
"Late last week, CNN and Jake Tapper, along with CNN’s sports reporter Bob Costas, aired a highly defamatory piece titled “The Court Fight Between PGA Tour and LIV Golf Escalates as the Saudi-backed LIV Tries to Avoid Handing Over Information."
They continued, adding that the terms used by Costas and Tapper were highly inappropriate:
"This widely viewed broadcast in Florida, the nation and internationally, was not only defamatory but also designed to incite ridicule, hatred and violence against LIV Golf players, such as my client Patrick Reed, a world champion professional golfer, by publishing that he takes 'blood money' from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy 22 years ago."
The lawyers insist that Reed isn't taking any blood money, but is simply playing for an upstart golf league funded by Saudi Arabians. The lawyers state that it's no different than working for Disney, Boeing, J.P. Morgan Chase, Amazon, Blackrock Inc., Microsoft, and others that are also at least partly funded by the same party.
The law team stated that CNN is now aware of the pending suit and has just five days to retract, take down every form of the statement and issue on-air apologies or risk being sued for nearly half a billion dollars.
This is not the first time the star golfer has sued an outlet like this. In December, the golfer sued Brandel Chamblee, the Golf Channel, and multiple other journalistsovern claims of defamation.
CNN has been sued before, so they may want to take this to court, but they may also prefer to avoid any potential loss of money and simply apologize on live television instead.