CNN Closed Captioning Lawsuit Sent to Calif. Supreme Court

A federal appeals court in California stalled ruling in a closed captioning lawsuit against CNN Wednesday in a lawsuit alleging that the news network refused to provide closed captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired on their website.

Allegedly, the videos had no option for closed captioning, were poorly timed, or inaccurately transcribed.

When the lawsuit was first filed in 2011, the appeals court ruled that CNN had not actually intended to discriminate against the hearing-impaired. the Ninth United States Circuit Court of Appeals pursued the lawsuit further, extending it to this day.

However, the three-judge panel of the appeals court could not make a unanimous decision, so they have requested that the closed-captioning lawsuit be sent to the California Supreme Court to make the final decision.

The decision is difficult because it was unclear to the judge panel whether or not CNN actually violated closed captioning policies in California. According to state law, all public accommodation places must be equally accessible to anyone with a physical or sensory disability. However, the appeals court could not determine whether or not this also applied to online videos.

If the state court rules in favor of the plaintiff party, it will allow more than 100,000 Californians who are hearing impaired to gain full accessibility to CNN’s online videos.  The plaintiff team states that this motion is an encouraging development and is hopeful that the hearing-impaired will finally get to enjoy the simplicity of an online news video.

On the other hand, the ruling could also be considered a victory for CNN and other media organizations who filed arguments in support of the news company, because the ruling was not automatically in favor of the plaintiffs.

CNN argues that they do follow closed captioning regulations for their televised broadcasts, but the law does not cover brief online video segment which are posted on the defendant’s website at the rate of 100 or more a day.

Additionally, CNN argues that closed captioning can cause delays and inaccuracies during the actual video, and should only be imposed if it is actually required by government regulations.

The network also stated that the case falls under a specific policy of California state law, which states that a lawsuit has no merit if it interferes with free expression.  If that is the case, the lawsuit will be promptly dismissed, requiring the plaintiff to pay for the defendant’s legal costs.

U.S.  Magistrate Laurel Beeler of a California federal court disagreed with CNN’s assessment and dismissed CNN’s attempt to remove the lawsuit in 2012. Beeler states that the closed captioning would only affect CNN’s delivery of the news and not its coverage or content. However, her ruling was overturned by the appeals court mentioned earlier.

CNN’s refusal to provide closed captioning on their online videos remains a grey area in the closed-captioning law because it is undetermined whether or not the internet is considered public domain, which would require it to be accessible to all users.

However, CNN’s online videos are meant for all visitors to their website, hearing-impaired or not, but the issue remains ambiguous because California state law does not have a clear distinction on internet videos.

Closed Captioning Litigation Movement

This CNN lawsuit is in addition to other closed captioning lawsuits in California, notably the first one filed against the movie rental company Redbox. In that class action lawsuit, the plaintiff alleged that the media company failed to provide closed captioning on the movie he rented, when it clearly stated on the label it would. Additionally, most of the closed captioning on the movies that did have them were inaccurate or poorly timed, making it difficult to follow along.

Join a Class Action Lawsuit against Redbox

If you or someone you know, who is hearing impaired, rented a movie from Redbox and were not able to watch it because it did not include Closed Captioning, legal options may be available. Learn more at the Redbox Movies Closed Captioning Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. There a lawyer will review your claim at no cost. So act now!