U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood found that “the undisputed evidence establishes that multiple NBC statements were false.”
NBC Universal has agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by a Georgia gynecologist who had been accused of performing medically unnecessary hysterectomies on undocumented immigrants.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiff Mahendra Amin.
In September 2020, NBC Universal-owned MSNBC aired several segments detailing allegations against Amin. The segments, hosted by stars like Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow, suggested that Amin had performed a large number of medically unnecessary hysterectomies on female detainees at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
MSNBC’s reports on Amin were purportedly sparked by a whistleblower’s complaint.
The whistleblower said that different women at the same ICE facility had received medically unnecessary and painful procedures, all of which were either conducted or overseen by Amin.
In a segment that aired on September 15, 2020, correspondent Jacob Soboroff spoke to the whistleblower about Amin’s reputation.
“You’re quoted in the complaint as saying, ‘That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector,’” Soboroff asked whistleblower and nurse Dawn Wooten. “Is that how people refer to this doctor?”
“That’s how the detainees referred to this physician,” Wooten said. “They referred to him—I had a detainee that asked me, she said, ‘Well, what is he doing, miss? Is he collecting our uteruses?’”
Rachel Maddow also quoted a detainee who had likened Amin’s medical procedure to those conducted in Nazi concentration camps.
“When I met all these women who had the surgeries, I thought this was, like, an experimental concentration camp[,] it was like they’re experimenting with our bodies,” Maddow said.
However, in June, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood found that “the undisputed evidence establishes that multiple NBC statements were false.” In her ruling, Wood said that all available evidence indicates that “there were no mass hysterectomies or high numbers of hysterectomies at the [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] facility.”
Although NBC Universal tried to argue that its segments were primarily focused on “unnecessary and unconsented-to medical procedures on detainees […] including large numbers of hysterectomies,” Wood said that MSNBC’s coverage was misleading.
The focus of most of the segments, Wood said, was on “mass hysterectomies,” with the network running headlines including “WHISTLEBLOWER: HIGH NUMBER OF HYSTERECTOMIES AT ICE DETENTION CTR.” and “COMPLAINT: MASS HYSTERECTOMIES PERFORMED ON WOMEN AT ICE FACILITY.”
Wood noted that, in his time at the ICE facility, Amin had performed only two hysterectomies on female detainees. However, as a result of extensive media coverage, Amin received death threats, lost patients, and was prohibited from continuing to work with ICE.v
Sources
MSNBC parent company NBCUniversal settles ‘uterus collector’ lawsuit ahead of high-stakes trial
NBC settles defamation lawsuit with doctor falsely labeled “uterus collector”
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