To get Palin’s lawsuit tossed, NYT must prove NYT editorial writers don’t read the NYT – IOTW Report

To get Palin’s lawsuit tossed, NYT must prove NYT editorial writers don’t read the NYT

Michelle Malkin-

**Written by Doug Powers

This could be the “pass the popcorn” moment for the ages:

In an unusual move, New York federal court judge Jed Rakoff has called for an evidentiary hearing in Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. The lawsuit is just six weeks old, but the judge says he needs to hear from the paper’s editorial writer(s) to decide whether the lawsuit should move forward.
[…]
The editorial originally linked one of Palin’s political action committee ads to a 2011 mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona Congressman Gabby Giffords. After the editorial ran, the paper issued a correction acknowledging that no link had been established.

Palin claims the newspaper published something it “knew to be false,” which would constitute actual malice, a necessary element in defamation actions brought by public figures.  MORE

11 Comments on To get Palin’s lawsuit tossed, NYT must prove NYT editorial writers don’t read the NYT

  1. Salient excerpt: “However, these prior stories arguably would only evidence actual malice if the person(s) who wrote the editorial were aware of them.”

    Uhh….

  2. I’ve been reading the stories about this and the writers are about split whether this is good or bad for Plain’s case. I gather this move is extrordinary in civil cases as the courts usually side with the plaintiff and allowing the case to proceed.
    One side says it’s great news for Palin as they get to question witness under oath before it gets to court while the other side says that all the witnesses have to do is state they never used the NYT database to see if similar stories/editorials had been published and that essencially they are just bad journalists and that gives the Judge reason to dismiss.
    I just hope that somebody, somewhere kept the search logs for the NYT databases that would record the search terms, the user(s) who executed them and the results returned and that Palin’s team has copies.

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