Vindicated but blemished, mainstream media is bracing itself for the potential after-shock of both a Manhattan federal judge and jury finding that former Alaska Gov. and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin failed to show sufficient actual malice to find the New York Times liable for an errant editorial that appeared to blame her ads for a political shooting.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in 2017 dismissed the Palin case after holding an unusual hearing at the motion stage, but the Second Circuit reversed and instructed him to allow the matter to go to trial. Chastened by the Second Circuit, at summary judgment he allowed that Palin’s lawyers could take the issue to trial. As the jury deliberated in mid-February, he reiterated the same conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of actual malice—but not unlike many judges dealing with media cases he let the Times know he felt their work was sloppy and careless; calling it “very unfortunate editorializing” in “America’s Lethal Politics,” the editorial Palin challenged. And then after two days of deliberation the jury agreed with him. (Still, we seriously question Judge Rakoff’s decision to announce his JNOV before the verdict was returned, when it was inevitable that publicity from the ruling could potentially contaminate the jury’s deliberations and create yet another route for appeal).

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