Sarah Palin, who was the governor of Alaska and the Republican vice-presidential candidate of the United States in 2008, is on her way to losing the defamation lawsuit against the newspaper New York Times. The politician, once a star of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement, sued the newspaper in 2017 for an error contained in an editorial, quickly corrected, that linked her to hate speech and, specifically, to a recent shooting in which they were wounded several members of Congress. The newspaper related that event to another attack in 2011 that killed six people and seriously injured Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
In reality, it was not even necessary to wait for the verdict, since the judge presiding over the court dismissed the lawsuit on Monday in the midst of the jury’s deliberations, and regardless of the jury’s verdict, considering that Palin’s lawyers did not they presented conclusive evidence about the newspaper’s bad faith in publishing the information. The Republican politician has announced that it will appeal the decision and is considering legally challenging the legal consideration of “bad faith”, the requirement used for cases of possible libel or defamation against public figures (originally officials, later extended to personalities of finance or the entertainment, celebrities, etc.).
US District Judge Jed Rakoff will allow the jury, which began deliberating Friday afternoon, to continue its examination of the case so arguments can be used in an appeal like the one Palin promises.
The editorial of Times it was titled America’s deadly policies. According to the version initially published, Palin would have incited the gunman to carry out the 2017 mass shooting because his campaign had published an image on Facebook of Democratic districts marked with a crosshair. The newspaper corrected the editorial the next day, and Palin filed the suit two weeks later. Rakoff himself dismissed the suit in August 2017, ruling that the Times had made a “mistake”, but that the former governor of Alaska had not proven that the error “was made in bad faith, that is, knowing that it was false or with a reckless disregard of its falsehood”.
Palin was undaunted and continued to resort, as she threatens to do again, in a case that many interpret as an attempt to undermine the robust system of legal safeguards enjoyed by the media and journalists in the US. Palin would be, according to the interpretation to use, the battering ram with which the most conservative right aspires to tear down the protection provided by the First Amendment, which enshrines freedom of expression and the press, an objective on which two judges of the Supreme Court, both conservatives, have also ruled .
“Yes [Palin] loses the trial and appeals, he will no doubt ask the Supreme Court to change the libel laws to make it easier for the plaintiffs to win, specifically the rule that requires the plaintiff to show bad faith serious doubt about the truth of what has been published by of the journalist. I do not believe that the Supreme Court will change the law and it should not, because if it is easier for the plaintiff to win lawsuits for defamation, the press would cover fewer matters of interest, write fewer investigative articles and scrutinize the Government and institutions less, and that it would be bad for democracy,” said Georges Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center and former lawyer for the newspaper, on the eve of the trial.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe
“Sarah Palin’s lawyers made a name for themselves by suing the Gawker portal, achieving a $140 million judgment in their favor that put Gawker out of business” in 2010, recalled Dave Heller, deputy director of Media Law Resource, echoing the fear in the media world that “anti-press rhetoric from former President Trump and others could influence juries to award large and unwarranted damages that threaten [también económicamente] Press freedom”. Palin had requested nearly $500,000 for the damage to his reputation that, in his opinion, constituted the editorial of the Times.
Subscribe here to newsletter of EL PAÍS America and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of the region
#Sarah #Palin #Loses #Libel #Lawsuit #York #Times