Jury weighs Palin’s libel suit against the Times
NEW YORK — Lawyers representing both sides in Sarah Palin’s defamation suit against the New York Times made their closing arguments Friday, as a jury in the federal court in lower Manhattan prepared to deliberate whether the newspaper defamed her.
Kenneth Turkel, one of the lawyers for the former Alaska governor, told jurors that the case was ultimately about “power” and what he characterized as the irresponsible and unaccountable manner in which the Times wielded it when it published an editorial in 2017 that incorrectly linked Palin’s political rhetoric to a mass shooting in Arizona.
The mistake, which the Times corrected the morning after the editorial was published online, was “indicative of an arrogance and a sense of power that’s uncontrolled,” Turkel said.
“An entity as large as the New York Times Company controls every aspect of this dialogue,” he added. “At the click of a button, someone’s accused of inciting murder.”
David Axelrod, who is representing the Times, argued that the case was ultimately about an “honest mistake.” He said that Palin’s arguments required the jurors to believe that there was a nonexistent “conspiracy” afoot led by the newspaper’s former opinion editor, James Bennet, to intentionally smear her.
Axelrod dismissed the notion of “Bennet’s plot” as defying common sense given the contrition he displayed in emails shown to the jury. “If the intent was to defame, if the intent was to harm political rivals, would you say ‘We’re sorry we made a mistake?’ ” Axelrod said.
Palin finished her testimony Thursday, during which she echoed Turkel’s arguments, saying that the Times was “the Goliath” that had spread “lies” about her.
The editorial included an incorrect reference to a 2010 map from Palin’s political action committee that included illustrations of cross hairs over 20 House districts held by Democrats.