CNN Faces Major Lawsuit From Conservative Podcaster

Steven Crowder, host of the Louder with Crowder program, announced that he is suing CNN, the digital media company Jubilee, and Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.

The action follows a town hall held on October 14 in Fort Worth, Texas, and moderated by CNN’s Erin Burnett.

During the event, Talarico engaged with a mixed audience of voters on topics including abortion, immigration, energy, and corruption.

CNN and Jubilee labeled a one-on-one voter interaction segment “Change My Mind” and used the phrase no less than ten times.

Crowder’s company, LWC IP Assets LLC, owns the registered trademark “CHANGE MY MIND” under U.S. Registration No. 5960565, filed in 2019 and registered in 2020.

The mark covers entertainment services featuring ongoing webisodes of comedy and politics, along with related news and commentary.

Crowder’s long-running series typically involves tables set up in public places, often on college campuses, displaying a position followed by the phrase “CHANGE MY MIND” to invite discussion.

On X, Crowder posted, “CNN and Jubilee hosted a town hall with @jamestalarico last night and I only have one thing to say. Lawyer up.”

During his Thursday program, he stated, “Well, I guess we should officially announce that we’re suing.”

He added, “Maybe Jubilee has generated all of their profit off of a completely unoriginal idea, disguised it, and then the mask came off.”

Crowder said his team is working to identify “who flagrantly disregarded the trademark, who flagrantly plagiarized, who profited off of it most, and for what degree of time.”

He continued, “Once you rip it off, and you profit, and you use it for propaganda, I now have a problem. Why did you not do that before? All this time, you never came up with this idea because these people were incapable of doing it.”

The lawsuit centers on alleged unauthorized use of the trademarked format and title.