America’s formerly most respected newspaper is being sued by Sarah Palin for defamation after publishing a hit-piece that falsely claimed that the shooting of Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was a “direct” consequence of a website produced by Palin’s PAC. The New York Times has now defended itself. It’s excuse: it was just “an honest mistake.” There’s just one problem: the Times published a story proving it knew its own claim was false.
In 2011, Jared Loughner opened fire at a Giffords’ event in Tucson, Arizona, severely injuring the congresswoman and killing six others, including Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl. Immediately, the leftwing media tried to blame conservatives, quickly landing on an innocuous “stylized target” symbol from a Palin PAC website “targeting” Giffords’ district. But within hours of the “blame Palin” theory, the claim was debunked. Loughner, who was eventually diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, was an unhinged, violent, drug-abusing man who hated the government in general and whom acquaintances described as more “left wing” or “radical” than anything else. There simply was no link to Palin’s “target” symbol.
Despite these well-known facts, the New York Times chose to publish an editorial the evening after an unhinged Bernie Sanders’ supporter opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball practice blaming Palin for Loughner’s actions. Below is how the original, blatantly dishonest passage read:
Was this attack evidence of how vicious American politics has become? Probably. In 2011, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.
Conservatives and right-wing media were quick on Wednesday to demand forceful condemnation of hate speech and crimes by anti-Trump liberals. They’re right. Though there’s no sign of incitement as direct as in the Giffords attack, liberals should of course hold themselves to the same standard of decency that they ask of the right.
Now the Times‘ lawyer claims that the attempt to blame Palin was simply “an honest mistake.”
“There was an honest mistake in posting the editorial,” lawyer David Schultz told Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff on Friday, the New York Post reports.
But as Palin’s attorney pointed out, the Times knew better:
“It was literally acknowledged the same day in another story in their paper,” said attorney Kenneth Turkel.
After thorough public shaming, The Times made multiple “corrections” to their egregious editorial. Here’s how the passage now reads (deleted phrasing marked with a strike-through, significant phrasing additions in bold):
Was this attack evidence of how vicious American politics has become? Probably. In 2011, Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. At the time, we and others were sharply critical of the heated political rhetoric on the right. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map that showed the targeted electoral districts of Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs. But in that case no connection to the shooting was ever established.
Conservatives and right-wing media were quick on Wednesday to demand forceful condemnation of hate speech and crimes by anti-Trump liberals. They’re right. Though there’s no sign of incitement as direct as in the Giffords attack, Liberals should of course be held to the same standard of decency that they ask of the right.
The editorial also now includes a correction note at the bottom:
Correction: June 15, 2017
An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established.
As Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro put it in response to the original version of the editorial, “This is fever swamp territory from The New York Times. The facts don’t match the narrative, so the facts must die a gruesome, slow death.”