The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on Friday has sparked discussion over whether the teen will pursue defamation lawsuits against media outlets that referred to him as a "white supremacist" and "vigilante" after he killed two men and injured another during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25 last year.
"There is no question he suffered reputation damage," Michael Toebe, a reputation and communications specialist, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
Toebe said the defendant's name "might still be long associated with killing, even if not murder, and a felon who got off."
"That's a heavy burden to carry through what could be a long life. Did the media contribute to it? That would be the argument," Toebe added.
MSNBC host Joy Reid referred to Rittenhouse as a "vigilante" on Nov. 11. A guest on the network compared him to a "school shooter" on Sept. 1, 2020, and another network contributor said he is "arguably a domestic terrorist" the same day, according to the Examiner.
Black nationalist Tariq Nasheed has labeled the defendant as a "suspected white supremacist murderer."
Former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz predicted that Rittenhouse would "bring lawsuits" against people and outlets that defamed him, if acquitted.
"It's CNN who is involved in vigilante justice. It's The New Yorker that's guilty of vigilante justice," Dershowitz said on Newsmax on Saturday.
Todd McMurtry, who represented Covington high school student Nicholas Sandmann in his successful lawsuits against CNN and The Washington Post, said even calling Rittenhouse a "vigilante" could be problematic.
"A vigilante, per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress or punish crimes summarily. That's not what he was doing," McMurtry said.
A jury on Friday found Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges related to the deaths of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and the injury of Gaige Grosskreutz.
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