‘How Could We Get This Wrong?’: Texts And Emails In Palin Defamation Lawsuit Show NYT Editorial Negligence
New texts and emails reveal behind-the-scenes chaos shortly after the New York Times's opinion staff published an editorial accusing Sarah Palin of inciting political violence.
By Jordan Davidson
September 10, 2020
In 2017, the New York Times ran an editorial claiming that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was connected to, and even incited the 2011 shooting that killed six people and wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Palin is now suing the paper of record for defamation, and discovery documents obtained by The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reveal how chaos and editorial negligence played out in the Times’s newsroom.
The editorial titled, “America’s Lethal Politics,†first penned by Elizabeth Willaimson on the congressional baseball practice shooting in Arlington, Virginia, was reportedly submitted right before 5 p.m. but required extra editing from The Times’s editorial page editor James Bennet.
The piece referenced the 2011 shooting, citing a map posted on Palin’s PAC Facebook page, which documented districts where “House members who voted for Obamacare†but were won by the McCain and Palin presidential ticket in 2008. “The link to political incitement was clear,†read the Times editorial, despite the fact that there is no evidence that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, ever even knew about the map. Even the Washington Post called the claim “bogus.â€
Discovery documents from Palin’s lawsuit, including “depositions, statements, story drafts, emails and texts,†show that The Times knew about the error not long after it was published, and failed to issue a correction until the next morning. Even then, Palin’s name was still mentioned in the piece.
more
https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/10/how-could-we-get-this-wrong-texts-and-emails-in-palin-defamation-lawsuit-show-nyt-editorial-negligence/
