The judge in Sarah Palin’s defamation case against The New York Times said he will dismiss the suit because Palin had not met the legal standard that the Times acted with “actual malice” when it published a 2017 editorial that made a false claim about her.
But Judge Jed S. Rakoff is not going to toss the case until after the jury returns with a verdict. As of Monday afternoon, the jury was still deliberating.
NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik tweeted, “As Judge Rakoff noted in remarks preceding announcement – he was not ruling on whether she had convinced him she had won the case but whether she had produced enough evidence to *make* her case, meeting tough actual malice standard about defamation of public figure.”
Rakoff said he “wasn’t happy” to reach the decision that he did, but he had to follow the law. He added, “This is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times.”
So why wait until after the jury’s verdict to toss the case?
Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan tweeted, “No question this will be appealed so jury’s view meant to inform appeals court.”
The Post’s Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison wrote, “Rakoff said the case will likely go to a court of appeals, which will ‘have the benefit’ of his ruling on the legal underpinnings of the case, and the jury’s verdict.”
The judge also could have waited until the jury came back before announcing his decision, but he told the lawyers, “The more I thought about it over the weekend, the more I thought that (waiting]) was unfair to both sides. We’ve had a very full argument on this. I know where I’m coming out and I ought to therefore apprise the parties of that.”
Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and governor of Alaska, sued the Times over a 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords to a map circulated by Palin’s PAC that showed certain electoral districts under crosshairs. The Times corrected the editorial about 12 hours after it was published online.
This story is still developing.
Tom Jones is Poynter’s senior media writer. For the latest media news and analysis, delivered free to your inbox each and every weekday morning, sign up for his Poynter Report newsletter.
