A federal jury in Manhattan ruled Tuesday that The New York Times (NYT) did not defame former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial, multiple outlets reported.
The two-week civil trial concluded following closing arguments and two hours of jury deliberation, Fox News reported. The jury determined that the NYT did not defame Palin in a 2017 editorial that she alleged connected her to a 2011 mass shooting that killed six people and injured then-Democratic Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords.
The NYT corrected the editorial the following day and James Bennett, then the outlet’s editorial page editor, assumed responsibility for the story in testimony before the court, according to Fox News. Palin sued the outlet for defamation in 2017.
Tuesday’s decision marks the second occasion the outlet was found not liable of defaming Palin in this lawsuit, Fox News reported. In 2022, a federal jury decided favorably toward the NYT, though this was after U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff had dismissed the lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit later ruled that Rakoff had unintentionally influenced the jurors and inappropriately excluded pieces of evidence, prompting a retrial, according to The Washington Post.
We didn’t prevail in federal court against the New York Times. But please keep fighting for integrity in media. I’ll keep asking the press to quit making things up⚖️🇺🇸 keep the faith https://t.co/6gB1ZVvzFj pic.twitter.com/IDJeOgFqZN
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) April 22, 2025
During the trial, Palin alleged that the editorial damaged her reputation and that the NYT had not issued a personal apology, the outlet reported. Palin also claimed the NYT’s correction was not sufficient. (RELATED: Supreme Court Ruling Makes Curious Exception For Illegal Migrants Ordered To Leave Country On A Saturday)
A spokesperson for The New York Times reacted to the verdict, thanking jurors for their “careful deliberations” in the case.
“We want to thank the jurors for their careful deliberations. The decision reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes,” the spokesperson told the Daily Caller via email.
In an April 22 post shared to her verified X account, Palin urged her followers to “keep fighting for integrity in the media” despite her losing the verdict.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
