(New York) A New York judge announced on Monday that he would dismiss the libel suit brought against the New York Times (NYT) by the former Republican candidate for the American vice-presidency Sarah Palin, a case scrutinized by the defenders of the freedom of expression and the press.
Posted at 5:39 p.m.
A jury in a civil court in Manhattan has been deliberating since Friday on this case which has pitted the former glory of the conservative Tea Party against one of the biggest media on the planet since 2017.
According to several American newspapers – New York Times, washington post and wall street journal – who have been following this defamation lawsuit closely for a week, Judge Jed Rakoff said he would reject Mr.me Palin, before the jury had even completed its deliberations and reached a verdict.
Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska chosen in 2008 by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, was dismissed in a first trial in August 2017 by a New York judge who found that the crime of defamation by the New York Times was not formed.
The politician had appealed.
It all started with an editorial from June 2017 in the NYT denouncing an attack perpetrated by a lunatic who had opened fire on elected Republicans playing baseball near Washington. The newspaper at the time made a link between another shooting, in 2011, against an elected Democrat from Arizona, Gabrielle Giffords, and an advertisement from a committee in support of Sarah Palin, in which the constituency of Mme Giffords was designated by a sign resembling a line of sight.
The next day, the NYT corrects its editorial and recognizes that there is nothing to confirm that the shooter who seriously injured Mme Giffords and killed six people was prompted to act by publicity from the support committee of Mme Palin.
During this new civil trial, Mr.me Palin said she felt “disarmed” about the 2017 editorial written, she said, when the paper knew there was no connection between her support committee publicity and the shootings.
the New York Times has always pleaded good faith.
The case goes beyond the conflict between the conservative politician and the New York newspaper.
For media and lawyers, it is emblematic of freedom of expression and that of the press to write about public figures. In a famous 1964 Supreme Court decision (“New York Times Co. v. Sullivan”), America’s highest court set the bar high for an official to win a libel suit.
It is necessary to prove a “genuine malice” of the press organ which would have published information “in the knowledge that it is false or with a total disregard for the truth”.
For meme Palin said it was “virtually impossible,” said John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Dmitriy Shakhnevich.