CNN is scheduled to air what it calls a documentary on college rape in America on Sunday night. NFL quarterback Jameis Winston said he will sue CNN if they air the film.
Jameis Winston, quarterback for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced that he would likely sue CNN if they air a documentary scheduled to be shown on CNN on Sunday. The documentary is called The Hunting Ground and the film explores rape on America’s college campuses.
In the documentary, Winston is openly accused of raping a woman, according to The Washington Post. In a letter written to CNN by Winston’s lawyer, the letter stated that they were “to formally caution CNN that the portions of the film The Hunting Ground pertaining to Mr. Winston are false and defamatory to Mr. Winston. We urge CNN to reconsider the reckless decision to proceed with the broadcast of this deeply flawed documentary in the face of the overwhelming evidence the film’s producers consciously and intentionally failed to adhere to any accepted journalistic standards.”
While playing football for Florida State University, Winston was accused of rape in 2012 by a woman named Erica Kinsman. Kinsman said she was breaking her silence about the incident by appearing in the film and telling her story. Kinsman’s lawyer in a prepared statement told Winston and his lawyer that they had best become accustomed to rape accusations because those accusation were here to stay.
Winston was taken by Tampa Bay with the first overall pick in the 2105 NFL draft. In addition to the statement Winston’s lawyer released earlier on Saturday, he went on to say that CNN acted with a reckless disregard for the truth of the matter. Florida State University has also asked CNN not to air the film. The university accuses CNN of calling the film a documentary, of calling it journalism, when it really is just a commercial, an advocacy piece, designed only with the alleged victims in mind.
In late 2013, one of the film’s producers, Amy Herdy, wrote an email to Kinsman’s lawyer saying that the film was not really interested in what Winston or any of the others had to say anyway. The email by Herdy stated; “We do not operate the same way as journalists – this is a film project very much in the corner of advocacy for victims, so there would be no insensitive questions or the need to get the perpetrator’s side.”
