NEW YORK, Feb 12 — A New York jury was preparing Friday to begin considering a defamation lawsuit brought by 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin against the New York Times that could have implications for journalistic freedom of expression in the United States.
Palin, the 58-year-old former Alaska governor and one-time darling of the conservative Tea Party movement, claims the newspaper intentionally harmed her reputation with a 2017 editorial that suggested her campaign rhetoric had helped incite a mass shooting.
The article was published following an attack on Republican lawmakers who were practising for a baseball game near Washington.
The comment piece linked the attack to a 2011 shooting in Arizona that wounded lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others.
It noted that before the Arizona attack Palin’s political action committee had run an ad that put Gifford’s congressional district in the crosshairs of a firearm.
The Times corrected the editorial the next day, saying there was nothing that could demonstrate that the perpetrator had been driven to act by that controversial ad.
Palin told a Manhattan court this week that the article had left her “powerless,” as she tried to convince the civil trial that she should be awarded unspecified damages.
Lawyers for the Times have argued in court that the paper did not intend to cause malice, claiming it was an “honest mistake.”
They also said that Palin did not suffer any harm because she “continues to be a media sensation,” The Washington Post reported.
The bar to prove defamation in the United States is high, due to a famous 1964 Supreme Court ruling known as the New York Times v. Sullivan.
A plaintiff needs to show that the defendant intended to cause harm. It is not sufficient to demonstrate that an error was made.
“This is an incredibly important case because it’s about the freedom of the press and it’s about the First Amendment,” a Times lawyer said during the trial, according to reports. — AFP
