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Sarah Palin, ex-governor of Alaska (February 3 in New York)
Photo: JUSTIN LANE / EPA
In the US, the hurdles for convicting the media of defamation are very high: it is not enough to show that a newspaper made a mistake.
Rather, it must be proven that false information was spread intentionally and with bad faith.
Sarah Palin had to experience that too.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate has failed in a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times.
A jury in New York acquitted the newspaper on Tuesday of the allegation of having deliberately damaged the reputation of the former governor of the US state of Alaska in a 2017 editorial.
The civil case had been followed with great attention because of its potential impact on press law in the United States.
The editorial linked a 2011 gun attack in Arizona that left six dead with a campaign ad by Palin's Political Action Committee.
The ad, which ran just before the attack, showed Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' congressional district in the crosshairs of a gun.
Giffords himself was seriously injured in the attack.
However, the New York Times had to correct the editorial the next day.
The newspaper admitted that there was no evidence that the perpetrator was driven to his crime by the controversial ad.
Palin subsequently sued.
Richter had already positioned himself in advance
The presiding judge in the case, in an unusual move, said Monday that he would dismiss the case if the jury found Palin right.
The jury came to the same verdict as the judge.
Palin is expected to appeal the decision.
The 58-year-old, once a figurehead of the right-wing populist Tea Party movement, campaigned for the 2008 White House alongside Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
However, the Republican duo lost to Barack Obama and his then running mate Joe Biden from the Democratic Party.
jok/AFP