Jury hears closing arguments in Palin vs. N.Y. Times trial

By Tom Hays

The Associated Press

NEW YORK

» A widely circulated New York Times editorial falsely linking former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to a mass shooting was a libelous display of arrogance and unchecked power, Palin’s lawyer said in closing arguments Friday at a defamation trial.

A Times lawyer conceded the newspaper had made a mistake, but argued there was no evidence it had set out to damage Palin’s reputation.

At the time of the 2017 edi-

GEORGIA torial, Palin was far removed from her fleeting fame as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, trying to live a quiet life in her home state, plainti attorney Kenneth Turkel told a jury in federal court in Manhattan. The piece drew her into an unfair fight, Turkel said.

“What this dispute is about in its simplest form is power, and lack of power,” he said. He also called it an example of how the Times “treated people on the right they don’t agree with. ... They don’t care. She’s just one of ‘them.’ ”

The Times ran a correc- tion but never apologized to Palin, which was “indicative of an arrogance and sense of power that’s uncontrolled,” he added.

He added: “Sarah Palin has done nothing to deserve this. ... All they had to do was dislike her a little less and we’re not sitting here today.”

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