After COVID delay, Sarah Palin's trial against New York Times scheduled
to begin
Send a link to a friend
[February 03, 2022]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sarah Palin and
the New York Times are scheduled to go to trial on Thursday as the 2008
Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor
seeks to hold the newspaper liable for defamation.
Palin sued the Times and former editorial page editor James Bennet in
2017 over an editorial that incorrectly linked her political rhetoric to
a 2011 Arizona mass shooting that left six dead and U.S. Representative
Gabby Giffords seriously wounded.
The Times later corrected the editorial.
Jury selection had been scheduled for Jan. 24 but was delayed because
Palin tested positive for the coronavirus.
Palin is expected after receiving medical clearance to appear and
testify in person at the trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in
Manhattan.
It is rare for a major media company such as the Times to have to defend
its editorial practices before a jury.
The trial comes as some legal scholars recommend revisiting the U.S.
Supreme Court's landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan
that made it difficult for public officials to prove defamation.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/03/images/ads/current/LPL_small%201.gif)
To win, Palin, 57, must offer clear and convincing evidence that the
Times acted with "actual malice," meaning it knew the editorial
was false or had reckless disregard for the truth.
"The key will be showing how the editorial came together," said Timothy
Zick, a professor and First Amendment specialist at William & Mary Law
School. "Essentially, did the Times do its homework before publishing?"
Headlined "America's Lethal Politics," the disputed June 14, 2017,
editorial was published after a shooting in Alexandria, Virginia in
which U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, a member of the House of
Representatives Republican leadership, was wounded.
The editorial questioned whether the shooting reflected how vicious
American politics had become.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/020322pics/news_b37.jpg)
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin fires up the crowd before U.S.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrive at a campaign
rally at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida March 14,
2016. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/03/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
It then said "the link to political incitement was clear" when Jared Lee
Loughner opened fire in the 2011 shooting after Palin's political action
committee had circulated a map putting 20 Democrats including Giffords
under "stylized cross hairs."
Bennet had added that language to a draft prepared by a Times colleague.
The Times later said its quick correction removing those words reflected
its lack of actual malice.
But Palin said the added language fit Bennet's "preconceived narrative,"
including opposition to gun rights advocacy. Bennet has said he did not
intend to blame Palin.
The trial is expected to last five days.
Palin is seeking unspecified damages, saying the editorial harmed her
reputation. She has signaled she would challenge the Sullivan precedent
on appeal if she loses.
Two conservative Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil
Gorsuch, have called for reconsidering Sullivan.
Thomas has said little historical evidence suggested that the actual
malice standard flowed from the original meaning of the U.S.
Constitution's First and 14th Amendments.
Gorsuch has said the standard offered an "ironclad subsidy for the
publication of falsehoods" in a landscape increasingly populated by
media that can disseminate sensational information with little regard
for the truth.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Grant McCool)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/03/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png) |