New York Times account of Palin's lawsuit keeps digging their hole
Evidently, they don't know about The Law of Holes at the New York Times: "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." In its news account of the lawsuit, the Times kept digging. A lawyer friend writes:
The piece below appears in the business section of today's New York Times.
"The Times later issued a correction, saying that there was no established link between political statements and the shooting and that the map circulated by Ms. Palin's PAC had depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, beneath the stylized cross hairs."
"No established link." Uh huh. Perhaps there was a link but it wasn't "established."
I hope Palin's attorneys catch this. I'm sure they will. Even now the Times can't bring itself to say "we were 100% wrong."
The Times still has not personally apologized to Governor Palin. That is the sort of thing that could make a difference to a jury in assessing the motives of the defendant in libeling the plaintiff and calculating damages, if they find libel was committed. For reasons I do not comprehend, the suit was filed in the Southern District of New York, which is, as Mark Grabowski reminds us:
The federal court, which serves the New York City region, [and it] is loaded with liberal judges and juries who are likely to be more sympathetic to the hometown newspaper. Then again, Palin's home state may not have been a better option as Alaska falls under the jurisdiction of the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
I still think this case is about discovery, not about a victory, though that outcome would be a bonus. Remember that "democracy dies in darkness," according to the Times' arch-rival, the Washington Post, and we may just see some light shone on the thinking and news judgment of the Times.