Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Palin’s lawsuit against The New York Times alleges the newspaper defamed her in an editorial it published that incorrectly linked Palin’s own political rhetoric with a mass shooting that took place near Tucson, AZ in 2011 in which six people were killed and 14 others were wounded. The casualties included Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and was a Democratic member of Congress at the time.
As it happened, the editorial about Palin was published on June 14th, 2017. That same day, a gunman opened fire on several Republican congressmen at a baseball field in Virginia. The editorial suggested the 2017 shooting in Virginia was evidence of how violent American politics had become.
The editorial also suggested Palin’s own violent language might have incited the 2011 shooting, pointing to a map that had been circulated by Palin’s own political action committee that showed crosshairs over congressional districts Republicans were hoping to pick up in the next election, including Giffords’s district.
The Times later corrected the error by saying it had made a mistake in linking the shooting with Palin’s rhetoric, but her libel lawsuit against the newspaper is still going forward in the courts. It is just one in a string of lawsuits against major news outlets that want media outlets to pay a higher price for making a mistake. Continue reading ›