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Court: Sarah Palin libel lawsuit against NY Times to go to trial

Court: Sarah Palin libel lawsuit against NY Times to go to trial

Denies NY Times’ request for summary judgment, sets February 1, 2021, trial date, “pandemic permitting,” over false editorial blaming Palin’s electoral map for shooting of Gabby Giffords.

https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/photos/a.446272898587.241951.24718773587/10153896234888588/?type=3&theater

The last we checked in on Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the NY Times over a false editorial blaming an electoral map used by Palin for the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords by Jared Loughner. As we reported at the time of the shooting, there was no connection, it was a fabrication of left-wing bloggers that made its way into the mainstream.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit after it was dismissed by the District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, and denied the Times’ petition for rehearing. (See those links for more details on the lawsuit.)

The suit then went back to the District Court, and the NY Times moved for summary judgment. That is a procedure where the court can grant judgment for a party where there are no material facts in dispute and the law is in the party’s favor. The reports of the oral argument on summary judgment were fairly gloomy, though that doom and gloom now seems like journalistic wishful thinking.

The District Court just denied the NY Times motion for summary judgment, ordering the case to go to trial.

The Order (pdf.) details the timeline of the Times editorial process that gave rise to the editorial, including the removal of material from the first draft that would have cast doubt on Palin’s responsibility. After publication, people within the Times, including columnist Ross Douthat, internally notified the editors that there was no evidence to support the claim against Palin. (The internet also errupted with criticism, something not reference by the Judge.)

Less than a day after the Editorial’s publication, after having found no evidence of the “link” to which it referred, the Times revised and corrected the Editorial. The Times published the first revised online version at 11:15 a.m. on June 15, 2017…. In it, the Times deleted the phrases “the link to political incitement was clear” and “[t]hough there’s no sign of incitement as direct as in the Giffords attack” and added the sentence “But no connection to that crime was ever established.” Id. In addition, the Times published a series of corrections, which ultimately clarified that no link between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords was ever established….

After covering the law, the court concluded that Palin met her burden:

But in the end plaintiff meets her burden of adducing evidence that, taken in the light most favorable to plaintiff, could enable a rational jury to conclude that Bennet either knew, or was reckless not to know, that his words would carry the defamatory meaning. Indeed, at least four items of evidence warrant this conclusion.

First, there is the language of the Editorial’s statements themselves, such as, e.g., the reference to the Map as being a “direct” form of “incitement” to Loughner’s shooting. As defense counsel conceded at oral argument, in determining actual malice, the finder of fact is “entitled to consider the wording of the alleged defamatory statement.” Transcript of Oral Argument, July 27, 2020 (“Tr.”) at 10: 20-11: 1; see also id. at 12: 9-12 (“I agree that the language of the publication is part of the mix” in determining actual malice). Here, Bennet’s contention that, notwithstanding the words he used, he did not mean to suggest a direct link between the Map and the shooting, may be “so inherently improbable that only a reckless man would have” chosen the words he chose to convey the meaning he (allegedly) sought to convey. 11 Dalbec, 828 F.2d at 927; cf. id. (“[T]he plain language of the . statement strongly supports the inference that it was made with knowledge of its falsity.”)

Second, Bennet has himself admitted that he was aware that the term “incitement” could mean a call to violence. Indeed, at his deposition, Bennet conceded that the term “incitement” means “different things to different people” and that “some people could interpret [the term] as a call to violence.” See Sullivan Deel. Ex. 2 (Bennet Dep.) at 112-14. Bennet’s general awareness of the fact that “incitement” could be construed as a call to violence is further evidence in favor of actual malice. See Sprague, 2003 WL 22110574, at *5 (knowledge “that the average reader of the journal would be familiar with both” the defamatory and nondefamatory meanings of the word at issue counts in favor of finding actual malice).

Third, Bennet’s decision to substantially revise Williamson’s earlier draft, which did not include the allegedly defamatory language and meaning, is, a jury could find, yet more evidence of actual malice. To be sure, Bennet testified that he made these changes because he worried that phrases like “incendiary” or “inflammatory rhetoric” had been “drained of [their] power because [they are] used so often” and that he was searching for “a very strong word to write about the political climate,” and so chose “political incitement.” Defs’ Mem. at 18 (quoting Pl. SUMF ~~ 56, 58-59). But, as discussed above, the credibility of that testimony is for the jury to assess, not for this Court to credit at the summary judgment phase. It is virtually undeniable that Bennet’s edits changed the meaning of Williamson’s draft, an alteration that a reasonable jury might conclude was intentional….

Fourth, the nature of the corrections issued by the Times in the aftermath of the Editorial stand as further circumstantial evidence that Bennet was aware that the Editorial carried the defamatory meaning….

The fact that Bennet and the Times were so quick to print a correction is, on the one hand, evidence that a jury might find corroborative of a lack of actual malice, as discussed later. But, on the other hand, a reasonable jury could conclude that Bennet’s reaction and the Times’ correction may also be probative of a prior intent to assert the existence of such a direct link, for why else the need to correct? Indeed, the correction itself concedes that Bennet’s initial draft incorrectly stated that there existed such a link. If, as Bennet now contends, it was all simply a misunderstanding, the result of a poor choice of words, it is reasonable to conclude that the ultimate correction would have reflected as much and simply clarified the Editorial’s intended meaning. 12

The court then went over, and rejected as legally insufficient, other defenses.

Trial is set for February 1, 2020 [sic – 2021], “pandemic permitting.”

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Comments

legacyrepublican | August 28, 2020 at 9:12 pm

I have to wonder how much Project Veritas made this possible. Exposing their bias and propensity to print propaganda rather than news must have benefited Sandman and Palin.

So when does discovery start?

    cato in reply to clintack. | August 28, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    Discovery has been completed. Now we will see whether what Palin’s team discovered is enough to convince a jury.

      Edward in reply to cato. | August 29, 2020 at 8:07 am

      Why do I suspect that a NY City Petit Jury would see the NYT statements and inference about Sarah Palin as simply statements of fact?

        Milhouse in reply to Edward. | August 30, 2020 at 2:49 am

        The defendant conceded that it’s not fact. It did so publicly the day after it published it.

        To the best of my understanding the only question to be resolved here is what NYT v Sullivan‘s requirement that the defendant know the statement he made is untrue means, when the defendant is a corporate entity. The NYT as a corporate entity included people who knew the facts; but Bennett did not know them. Does Sullivan require that the specific person who wrote the false statement knew it was false, or is it enough that the defendant collectively knew?

Add Lin Wood to your team!

So the trial is scheduled to take place during Trump’s second term. Sweet.

How many years to trial?

Amazing how long this has taken. How is it the leftists always seem to keep court cases going a long time when it is against them, yet seem to push things right along when it is against the Republicans?

This justice system needs a big overhaul. Laws protecting the propagandist media need to change as well. They get away with being liars because of laws which protect them from legal actions far too much. They need to be held accountable, and that would go a long way toward ending the overtly partisan attitude that we see today.

Imagine Fredo Cuomo, Sourpuss Lemon and Madcow having to actually report news instead of pushing opinion as if it is news?

What a wonderful world it would be. …

    Edward in reply to oldgoat36. | August 29, 2020 at 8:11 am

    I would be happy if the MSM simply returned to mostly reporting actual news and do so without shilling for the Socialists/Communists. Ah, sweet dreams that never happen.

    Barry Soetoro in reply to oldgoat36. | August 29, 2020 at 9:26 am

    “Laws protecting the propagandist media need to change … .”

    Limit protection of speech and press to truthful utterances and articles only. No one has a God-given right to pollute the commons with lies.

    Milhouse in reply to oldgoat36. | August 30, 2020 at 2:51 am

    Four years for this sort of trial is not that long.

Baby steps. On a related noted…

Pushing Back on the Narrative of Modern Systemic Racism & White Privilege by Casey Petersen

Diversity dogma is progressive. Not surprisingly, people are reacting negatively to normalization of color judgments, not limited to racism, sexism. Speaking truth to facts is progressively an intolerable quasi-religious action that is a first-order forcing of adversity.

I remember vaguely hearing something about Justice delayed. Typical Leftist ploy, delay, run out the clock, then declare “old news”. If result is negative, appeal, appeal, appeal. See Oberlin College.

It took an appellate Court to clear the way. With freedom under attack by neo-fascist progressives; appointing judges who value liberty is vital for liberty to flourish.

Sarah Palin was the very first big target for the left’s tactic of total destruction of “conservative” candidates they are afraid of. This was the prelude for what the all out 24/7/365 campaign against Trump we have been living through. It is very encouraging to see she may get the last word in the end.

So with Sandmann now on a roll (future billionaire) and Palin finally getting a break, maybe lawyers who can actually navigate the law to see a way to win will be a new industry. It would be refreshing to see a few of those in these comment threads. We’ve been plagued by experts who can only explain to us how we can’t win.

The msm is a partner in the Washington D.C. criminal enterprise. Hiding behind 1A while advancing agandas for money and power. james wolfe should be the American people’s canary in a coal mine on how bad things are; first hand proof that the swamp is real and our intelligence community has been corrupt beyond belief. These people use 1A the same way prison shot callers use their lawyers/attorney client privilege to send out orders and hits on rival gangs members. One of the most horrifying revelations in American history was chuck schumer admitting the intelligence community ‘has six was from Sunday’ to get back at a duly elected president. Sarah Palin’s old running mate, by the way, played this game very well. He was as good at playing dnc dossier bag man as he was at kick starting A-4’s. This whole horror show needs to be exposed.

10-1 The NY Times proposes an “Offer of Settlement” within the next couple of months. Palin doesn’t need Lin Woods at this point, she has won.

As I recall, when the Times corrected the slander (only after the Washington Post, of all people, called them out), the paragraph managed to avoid the words Sarah and Palin.

Time to change the libel laws so professional news people and organizations are held to different standards. We they fail to follow generally accepted standards of performance and what they report is false that should be proof of libel.

Hopefully she will get enough money for another bus tour promoting a book to retire comfortably.

I’ve now read the order, and it appears that the critical point is not, as I had thought, what it means for the NYT to know something. It seems to have already been decided that what matters is what James Bennet himself personally knew. If he did not know that what he wrote was false and defamatory then neither he nor the NYT is liable. So there are only two questions for a jury to decide:

1. Did James Bennet realize, at the time that he wrote the words in question, that they would be understood in a way that defamed Palin?

2. Did he know, at that time, that they were false, or alternatively should he have known?

Bennet and the NYT deny both of these. They claim that Bennet never meant to imply that Palin’s ad influenced Loughner, and also that he didn’t realize that this wasn’t true. A jury will have to decide whether to believe them.

Note: The court casually dismisses Palin’s claim that the symbol on the map was not crosshairs and did not represent a gun sight. It doesn’t say why it dismisses this; it seems to simply regard it as obviously false. That seems problematic to me, but ultimately I don’t think it will matter.

Hopefully, Grey Lady down!

Antifundamentalist | September 2, 2020 at 9:06 am

I fervently hope this lawsuit ultimately ends in Palin’s favor & sets a clear legal precedent for all the defamation that the MSM has subsequently spewed since then. I would love to see every non-democrat representative or hopeful have a legal team dedicated to documenting this kind of hatchet work with the intent to bring every single instance to court. Maybe then we would get some actual News once in a while instead of the incessant propaganda that is the current norm.

I wonder if the NYT planned the correction from the get-go, under the idea that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on”? Figuring that more people would see the editorial than would see the correction, while the correction would cover them against future action may have been a mistake.

danm, it’s been 12 years since palin first made national news. either my eyes are getting worse with age or living in alaska slows the aging process.
she actually looks better now than she did in 2008!