Judge tosses Sarah Palin lawsuit against The New York Times
NEW YORK -- A federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a defamation lawsuit by Sarah Palin against The New York Times, saying the former Alaska governor failed to show the newspaper knew it was publishing false statements in an editorial before quickly correcting them.
The written ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the lawsuit seeking unspecified damages "fails on its face to adequately allege actual malice."
The lawsuit had claimed the Times "violated the law and its own policies" when it accused Palin of inciting a 2011 attack that killed six people.
The decision Tuesday came weeks after the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee sued over an editorial titled "America's Lethal Politics." It was published in June after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice in Virginia, wounding U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise.
The Times' editorial originally accused a Palin GOP political action committee of distributing a map depicting Democratic lawmakers beneath crosshairs before the 2011 shooting of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords in Arizona. The newspaper issued a correction noting the map showed electoral districts, not people, in the crosshairs.
"What we have here is an editorial, written and rewritten rapidly in order to voice an opinion on an immediate event of importance, in which are included a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Mrs. Palin that are very rapidly corrected. Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not," Rakoff said.
Rakoff, known for philosophical asides, wrote: "Nowhere is political journalism so free, so robust, or perhaps so rowdy as in the United States. In the exercise of that freedom, mistakes will be made, some of which will be hurtful to others."
He said if political journalism is to achieve its constitutionally endorsed role of challenging the powerful, lawsuits by public figures must be limited to when there is a "plausible factual basis for complaining that the mistake was made maliciously."
Lawyers for Palin did not immediately comment.
In a statement, the Times said it was delighted with the ruling and regretted the errors it made in the editorial.
"Judge Rakoff's opinion is an important reminder of the country's deep commitment to a free press and the important role that journalism plays in our democracy," the newspaper said.
Rakoff had previously heard testimony from James Bennet, the Times' editorial page editor, saying he thought the editorial was accurate when he approved its publication.
The judge dismissed an argument by Palin's lawyers that the newspaper might have been trying to boost sales by attacking Palin.
"As to the alleged 'hostility,' it goes without saying that the Times editorial board is not a fan of Mrs. Palin. But neither the fact of that opposition, nor the supposition that a sharp attack on a disfavored political figure will increase a publication's readership, has ever been enough to prove actual malice," he wrote.
Rakoff added: "There is not a shred of factual support, either in the complaint or in the evidentiary hearing, for the supposition that considerations of attracting readership ever entered Mr. Bennet's mind when he was drafting this particular editorial. Indeed, if that were his goal, one would have expected him to mention Mrs. Palin's name more than once in the editorial or use her name in the social media promoting the editorial, neither of which was done."