Latest news with #SarahPalin
NZ Herald
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Phil Robertson, reality television star of Duck Dynasty, dies at 79
The series catapulted Robertson and his brand of rural masculinity on to the national stage, attracting millions of viewers and catching the attention and support of conservative Republican political figures such as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. The show's fourth season premiere drew nearly 12 million viewers in 2013, making it the most watched cable show in history at that time, according to Rolling Stone. Robertson also frequently generated controversy with offensive remarks on social issues. That same year, the self-proclaimed 'Bible thumper' was briefly suspended from the show after he talked about homosexuality as a sin and compared bisexuality and promiscuity to 'bestiality' in an interview with GQ. He also downplayed the era of racial segregation, claiming he had never seen 'the mistreatment of any Black person' when growing up. 'They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues,' he said. The Robertson family at the time said that despite Phil's 'coarse' language, he was just expressing the teachings of his faith. Palin rallied to Robertson's defence, arguing that the backlash he had faced amounted to an attack on free speech. 'Those 'intolerants' hatin' and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us,' she wrote in a post on social media. Days later, video resurfaced of him speaking at an event in 2009 in which he advised girls to marry at 15 or 16 years old. While some die-hard fans remained loyal to the show, ratings fell steadily, and its final episode aired in 2017. A&E has announced it will revive the show in June, with a focus on the next generation of Robertsons. The programme will follow Robertson's son Willie, his wife, Korie, and their growing family of adult children and grandchildren as they map out the future of the hunting-goods business. In a second career as a speaker on the Christian circuit, Robertson amassed a large following among conservative evangelicals. He urged the Republican Party to 'get godly' in a 2014 speech, lamenting how far America had strayed from the Founding Fathers' vision of religion's role in government. In an interview with Fox News in 2019, Robertson spoke about the importance of religion to his life. 'I looked up one day and said, 'Man, I'm driven to do this. I have to do this',' he said, recalling the moment he said he discovered his faith at the age of 28. In interviews, his wife has described Robertson's religious conversion as a transformational moment for their marriage – ending a tumultuous chapter in his life of alcohol abuse. His books, written with Mark Schlabach, included a memoir, Happy, Happy, Happy, and UnPHILtered, detailing his philosophy on life and liberty. Robertson hosted a podcast, Unashamed, with sons Jase and Al. In 2016, Robertson endorsed Republican presidential candidate Cruz, releasing a video that asked, in part, which of the candidates could make a good duck gumbo. 'He's the man for the job, and he will go duck hunting,' Robertson said of Cruz in the spot, which featured the two men hunting ducks together. In the 2019 interview, Robertson said the unlikely odds of his success only affirmed his faith. 'What are the odds? We're down on the riverbank. I'm fishing the river, and I made a duck call that sounded like a duck,' he recalled. 'They bought 'em, and they bought 'em and they bought 'em. We look up, and here's a bus from New York City, A&E, and they pitched a thing about a TV show,' he said.
USA Today
23-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Jury finds New York Times not liable in Sarah Palin defamation case
Jury finds New York Times not liable in Sarah Palin defamation case NEW YORK - A federal jury in Manhattan on Tuesday found the New York Times not liable for allegedly defaming Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial about gun control, dealing the former Republican vice presidential candidate a second loss at trial. The verdict came in a retrial of Palin's case, after a federal appeals court threw out a 2022 verdict in the Times' favor. The jury deliberated for around two hours after a weeklong trial. In a statement after the verdict, New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said, "The decision reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes.'Palin's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Palin, 61, who also served as Alaska's governor, sued the newspaper and former editorial page editor James Bennet over a June 14, 2017, article that wrongly suggested she may have incited a January 2011 mass shooting in an Arizona parking lot. Six people were killed and Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was seriously wounded in the said he was under deadline pressure when he added language to "America's Lethal Politics" that linked the attack to a map from Palin's political action committee that put Giffords and other Democrats under crosshairs. The Times quickly acknowledged its mistake and apologized, publishing a correction 14 hours after the editorial appeared online. Lawyers for Palin said that wasn't enough because the backtracking didn't mention her by her closing argument, Times' lawyer Felicia Ellsworth alluded to the high burden that Palin, a public figure, had in order to hold the newspaper liable. "To win this case, Governor Palin needs to prove that the New York Times and James Bennet did not care about the truth," she said. "There has not been one shred of evidence showing anything other than an honest mistake." Palin lawyer Ken Turkel said it was more than that. "This is not an honest mistake about a passing reference" to Palin, he said in his closing argument. "For her, it was a life-changer." Palin lost her first trial in February 2022, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan last August said the verdict was tainted by several rulings from the presiding judge. The case had long been viewed by Palin and other conservatives as a possible vehicle to overturn the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court landmark New York Times v. Sullivan. In that case, the court said that to win a defamation case, a public figure must demonstrate that an offending statement was made with "actual malice," meaning with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was false. The 2nd Circuit, however, said Palin waived the argument by waiting too long to challenge the "actual malice" standard. President Donald Trump has also questioned the was Alaska's governor from 2006 to 2009, and ran with late Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in his unsuccessful 2008 White House run. Democrat Barack Obama and his vice presidential pick Joe Biden won that race.
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
A federal jury on Tuesday ruled against Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice-presidential nominee, in her yearslong defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. The jury reached the verdict after two hours of deliberations. Ms. Palin sued The Times in 2017 after the newspaper published — and then swiftly corrected and apologized for — an editorial that wrongly suggested she had incited a deadly shooting in Arizona years earlier. The case became a bellwether for battles over press freedoms and media bias in the Trump era, with Ms. Palin's lawyers saying they hoped to use it to attack a decades-old Supreme Court precedent that makes it harder for public figures to sue news outlets for defamation. This is the second time a federal jury has concluded that The Times was not liable for defaming Ms. Palin in its editorial. The case first went to trial in 2022, and both the jury and the judge ruled in favor of The Times. But last year, a federal appeals court invalidated those decisions, setting the stage for this month's retrial.
The Advertiser
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Sarah Palin loses defamation case against NY Times
A federal jury in Manhattan has found the New York Times not liable for allegedly defaming Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial about gun control, dealing the former Republican US vice presidential candidate a second loss at trial.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jury rules New York Times did not libel Sarah Palin in defamation case
A federal jury ruled that the New York Times did not libel former Alaskan Republican Gov. Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial in the latest update to the years-long lawsuit. The jury reached its decision after deliberating for about two hours following both sides delivering their closing arguments to the Manhattan federal court civil trial. The trial was in its second week. In a comment to Fox News Digital, NYT spokesperson Danielle Rhoades said, "We want to thank the jurors for their careful deliberations. The decision reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes." Sarah Palin Takes Witness Stand In Libel Case Vs. New York Times Fox News Digital reached out to Palin's legal team for comment. It is unclear yet whether she plans to appeal the decision. Palin, who became a national figure as the 2008 Republican vice presidential pick of the late Sen. John McCain, first sued the paper in 2017 for defamation after claiming an editorial falsely linked her to the deadly 2011 mass shooting that wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., and killed six people. The editorial was published in response to the 2017 mass shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice that severely wounded Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. Read On The Fox News App The editorial was corrected the next day. Former editorial page editor James Bennet took responsibility for rushing the story and in tearful testimony last week apologized to Palin. Judge Set To Dismiss Sarah Palin's Defamation Case, Siding With New York Times This was the second time the New York Times was found not liable for defamation in this lawsuit brought by Palin. In 2022, a federal jury unanimously ruled in favor of the publication after U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff had already dismissed the case. Rakoff said at the time that since the case would inevitably be appealed, the court of appeals would benefit from knowing a jury's decision despite his dismissal. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned this decision in 2024, finding that Rakoff's decision to dismiss the case prior to the jury's decision qualified the lawsuit for a retrial. "We have no difficulty concluding that an average jury's verdict would be affected if several jurors knew that the judge had already ruled for one of the parties on the very claims the jurors were charged with deciding," 2nd Circuit Judge John Walker Jr. said at the article source: Jury rules New York Times did not libel Sarah Palin in defamation case
