It was on April 19 when I first wrote about the possibility of a defamation lawsuit against the New York Post, for their flagrant behavior targeting an innocent kid for the Boston Marathon bombing. Indeed, the Post put his picture on the front page.
I followed up on May 1, when the Washington Post reported that the father of the young man was seeking legal counsel.
Today the Daily News reports that:
2 sue Post for bomber smear
The New York Post has been slapped with a defamation lawsuit by a teenager and his pal the newspaper falsely called “Bag Men” in a front-page headline about the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers.
Salaheddin Barhoum, 16, a high school sophomore, and Yassine Zaimi, 24, sued the Post for unspecified damages in Superior Court in Boston.
Barhoum “became terrified, began to shake and sweat, and felt dizzy and nauseous,” when he learned a picture of him and Zaimi taken at the finish line of the April 15 marathon landed on the cover of the Post on April 18.
Zaimi and Barhoum are avid runners and left the event prior to the bombing.
Not only were they on the cover carrying backpacks like the ones the real bombers used, they were also shown inside the newspaper with red circles drawn around their faces. A subheadline claimed, “Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.”
Zaimi and Barhoum ” were not suspects and were not sought by law enforcement,” the suit says.
A Post spokesman declined comment on the suit and referred reporters to an April statement issued by editor-in-chief Col Allan, saying, “We stand by our story” and contending the Post “did not identify them as suspects.” — Bill Hutchinson