NEW YORK — The New York Times did not defame former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by incorrectly linking her to a 2011 mass shooting, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff ruled Palin failed to prove her case, but said he won’t formally dismiss her lawsuit until after a jury returns a verdict since she will almost certainly appeal.
Palin alleged The Times and former editorial board editor James Bennet knowingly published false information about her in the piece “America’s Lethal Politics,” which ran in print on June 14, 2017. Palin, as a public figure, had to prove The Times made the mistake with “actual malice.”
“My job is to apply the law. The law here sets a very high standard for actual malice, and in this case, the court find that that standard has not been met,” Rakoff told a stunned courtroom.
He described the error as “an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of The Times,” but added that his role wasn’t that of public editor.
The judge said the deliberating jurors would remain in the dark about his ruling. He wouldn’t make it official until they return a verdict.
“We will have both the benefit of my decision on the law and their decision on the facts ... and therefore, a Court of Appeals will have the benefit of both determinations when it views the inevitable appeal,” Rakoff said.
The erroneous article linked ads from Palin’s political action committee to the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
The Times article incorrectly said that ads by Palin’s PAC put “Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs” when it actually put Giffords’ electoral district in crosshairs, not the representative herself.
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