NEW YORK — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) appeared in a lower Manhattan courtroom on Thursday to accuse The New York Times of defaming her in a 2017 editorial that linked her political rhetoric to gun violence.
An attorney for Palin delivered opening statements before a jury of nine people, singling out former New York Times opinion editor James Bennet, who ran the newspaper’s editorial pages until being pushed out in 2020. The attorney, Shane Vogt, argued that Bennet harbored ill will toward Palin and published information he knew to be false.
“He had his narrative, and he stuck to it,” Vogt said of Bennet, who was seated in the courtroom behind Palin.
Vogt’s opening monologue also targeted the Times, saying its editors are biased against Republicans, and Palin in particular.
“They think they can do whatever they want. They’re The New York Times,” Vogt said.
The case, which is being watched by press freedom advocates, was originally scheduled to start last month but got pushed back when Palin, who is proudly unvaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19.
Bennet was largely responsible for the Times editorial published June 14, 2017, the same day a man named James Hodgkinson opened fire on members of Congress who were practicing for their annual charity baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was among those seriously injured. The Times piece drew a parallel between that shooting and another act of gun violence in 2011, when a man named Jared Lee Loughner shot then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) in the head and killed or injured 18 others. The editorial specifically described an image that had been published by Palin’s political action committee depicting a map of the country with crosshairs over certain districts where Democrats held seats, and suggested that political rhetoric had become far too violent.
Despite the editorial’s argument that Palin had helped to “incite” violence, there was no evidence to prove Loughner was inspired by her. Palin’s lawyers say that Bennet should have known that, or double-checked to be sure, before the Times published the piece.
“The reason he didn’t check those facts is clear — he didn’t care,” Vogt said.
But an attorney for the Times, David Axelrod, told jurors that linking the Giffords shooting to the baseball shooting was a “natural connection” to make, and he cast heavy doubt on Palin’s claim that the article caused her emotional and professional damage.
The Times left the original version of the editorial up on its website for around 12 hours before making changes to clarify the lack of evidence linking Loughner to Palin. A correction note also ran the next day in the printed version of the paper.
“There’s no doubt the Times made a regrettable error in this editorial,” Axelrod said before pointing out that Palin had spent “no money” to repair her reputation after the editorial ran, “because her reputation wasn’t harmed.”
Among other television appearances, Palin had a guest spot on “The Masked Singer” in 2020.
