(TruthandLiberty.com) – On February 3, former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will finally get her day in court against the New York Times. In 2011, a Tucson mass shooting nearly left Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) dead and killed several of her constituents. In 2017, a Times editorial writer suggested an ad Palin’s Political Action Committee (PAC) placed around the time of the 2011 shooting incited the attack on the Congresswoman.
Palin sued the Times, alleging malice by the editorial author. Palin’s campaign map targeted vulnerable House Democratic seats, hoping to flip them to Conservatives during the 2012 midterm elections.
The jury trial in Sarah Palin v. NYT kicks off on Monday.
She's suing over an editorial that incorrectly said a digital ad published by her PAC incited the man who shot Gabby Giffords.
Jury has to decide: careless mistake or actionable "actual malice"?https://t.co/vAmHgQ2OHu
— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) January 23, 2022
Longtime Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said he didn’t doubt the Times defamed Palin. Dershowitz believes the former Alaska governor has a good shot at winning a malice case because the news outlet has repeatedly made mistakes that hurt the right but helped the left. He added the repeated one-sided historical corrections prove the point, a standard the Supreme Court set in “The New York Times v. Sullivan.”
Hours after the editorial ran in the paper, the Times published several corrections to the story. It added the original author didn’t establish Palin’s map connection to the shooting. Dershowitz said by correcting the piece, the Times admitted there was a reckless disregard for facts.
A jury will decide if Palin and Dershowitz are right or wrong in the next few weeks.
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