Sep 9, 2020
In 2017, an NY Times opinion article suggested Palin’s political action committee could have incited a mass shooting in Arizona. Two days later The Times corrected the article to confirm there was no link between the material Palin’s team distributed and the shooting. Recently a judge determined there is enough evidence for Palin to file a defamation lawsuit against the editorial in what will ultimately be a First Amendment issue that harkens back to the early 1970’s New York Times v. Sullivan. Jack Russo and Professor Bob Acker discuss if Sarah Palin v. The New York Times falls into this rare category where an opinion article has resulted in a significant amount of "recklessly gross negligence" (aka scienter) for slander against a public figure.