The former governor of Alaska claims that The Times acted recklessly in writing and publishing an editorial in 2017 that incorrectly linked a mass shooting in Arizona to her political rhetoric.
Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska who has receded from the public eye since being Senator John McCain’s running mate in 2008 and a hero to many conservatives who hoped she might one day run for president herself, took the stand on Thursday in her libel trial against The New York Times and reprised her once familiar role as an unforgiving critic of the mainstream media.
On the stand, she was by turns charming and testy, cracking an occasional joke and then bristling at pointed queries from a Times lawyer who tried to undercut the central claim of her case: that the news organization defamed her by publishing an editorial in 2017 that incorrectly linked her political rhetoric to a mass shooting.
Ms. Palin lashed out at those who, she said, wield “the power of the pen” in a destructive way. She compared being on the witness stand during cross-examination to sitting in “the penalty box.” She accused the media of “never letting a tragedy go to waste.”
Within the first few minutes of taking her seat in federal court in Lower Manhattan, Ms. Palin came out swinging at The Times, which she called “the Goliath” that had spread “lies” about her.
“I was David,” she said in response to questions from her lawyer, adding how she felt it was her role to look for “the stones” that she could...
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