Everyone forgets this battle exists, and I feel it is underrated. What do you think of it?
Sarah Palin has an Uphill Battle in her Lawsuit Against the NYTimes
The next two weeks will not be very enjoyable for The New York Times.
Monday marks the start of jury selection for a trial over Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against the newspaper. A quick recap: Palin sued the paper in 2017 over an editorial that incorrectly linked the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords to a map circulated by Palin's PAC that showed certain electoral districts under crosshairs. The Times corrected the error and apologized for it, and a judge initially dismissed the case. But a federal appeals court revived it and, as a result, a trial will now take place.
The case is, at its heart, about the limits of First Amendment protections and the standard set in the landmark New York Times vs. Sullivan case. Specifically, the standard that a public figure must prove an outlet operated with "actual malice" when it published defamatory information. Palin has argued The Times did, and The Times has said it made an honest error.
"At issue is the elasticity of the protections that allow news organizations to present tough coverage of public figures," Washington Post's Erik Wemple wrote on Friday. "Or, to put things a bit more sharply, the case will help demarcate the line between really bad journalism and libelous journalism."
Palin's lawyers aren't commenting ahead of the trial, but The Times is. A spokesperson for the paper told me on Friday that it hopes to "reaffirm a foundational principle of American law: public figures should not be permitted to use libel suits to punish unintentional errors by news organizations."
"We published an editorial about an important topic that contained an inaccuracy. We set the record straight with a correction," the spokesperson told me. "We are deeply committe
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