A judge said Monday he’ll dismiss a libel lawsuit that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin filed against The New York Times, claiming the newspaper damaged her reputation with an editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting.
The judge ruled the former Alaska governor's case over a 2017 editorial should be thrown out because her lawyers didn't provide evidence that the paper purposely published false information or acted with malice to damage her reputation.
In his closing argument, Times lawyer David Axelrod called the case "incredibly important because it’s about freedom of the press."The First Amendment protects journalists "who make an honest mistake when they write about a person like Sarah Palin … That’s all this was about — an honest mistake," Axelrod said.
He also pointed out that the Palin lawsuit makes no claim that she lost income because of the editorial. "She doesn't do that because it didn't happen."
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