Jury orders New York Times to pay $9.25 million for defaming Alabama basketball player Kai Spears
Photo: Daily Wire
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Jury orders New York Times to pay $9.25 million for defaming Alabama basketball player Kai Spears

A federal jury in Alabama found The New York Times defamed former University of Alabama basketball player Kai Spears by falsely reporting he was at the scene of a January 2023 fatal shooting. The jury awarded $9.25 million in damages after a nine-day trial. The Times said it was reviewing legal options and characterized the error as an honest mistake.

9
Divergence score
7 outlets covered it, splitting into 2 framing camps across 3 bias groups.
2 camps
3 bias groups
The spectrum · how 7 outlets placed this story
LeftCenterRight
Daily Wire
AP News
NY Post
Newsmax
Reason
Breitbart
Washington Post
Horizontal = outlet biasColor = this story's framing
Supportive of action
Neutral
Dismissive
Critical
Alarmist
International angle
Widest split · the two outlets furthest apart, and who published first
Furthest apart on this story
Daily Wire
NYT Ordered To Pay Millions To College Athlete In Defamation Judgement
emphasizes penalty and historic losing streak · negative
Washington Post
N.Y. Times loses defamation suit brought by college basketball player - The Washington Post
neutral
How Daily Wire and Washington Post compare across every story →
First to report
  1. Daily Wirefirst
  2. Washington Post+8.2 h
  3. NY Post+13.4 h
  4. Newsmax+15.6 h
  5. Reason+19.3 h
  6. Breitbart+20.8 h
By each outlet's earliest publish time in this story. Feeds that index slowly can appear later than they printed.
The split, in one line
Daily Wire leads with millions and the first loss in 50 years framing; AP foregrounds the incorrect story and the Times' reviewing its legal options response.
How each outlet covered it

Lightly covered so far

Too few outlets to map a left-right split. Here is each take as it stands.

Sparse coverage · 2 outlets
APAP NewsCENTER

“Jury says New York Times defamed Alabama basketball player with incorrect story about shooting”

DWDaily WireRIGHT22d ago

“NYT Ordered To Pay Millions To College Athlete In Defamation Judgement”

9 tracked claims across 7 outlets
Fact ledger
All9Claimed3Corroborated6
1/7
Claimed
Times sportswriter Billy Witz apologized to Spears from the witness stand during the trial
Corroborated
Disputed
8 more tracked claimsSign up free to see the full ledger
Event #14726 · analyzed at 2026-08-27T17:23 UTC · last updated 15d ago