James Bennet , the former editorial page editor of theNew York Times , testified in a defamation trial.Sarah Palin brought the lawsuit against the Times over a 2017 editorial she said defamed her.
The former top editor of the New York Times's opinion division apologized in testimony Thursday for mistakes that led to a defamation lawsuit brought against the publication.
"This is my fault," former Times editorial page editor James Bennet testified in court Tuesday afternoon. "I wrote those sentences and I'm not looking to shift the blame for anyone else. I want that for the record."
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin filed the lawsuit in 2017 over an editorial published by the Times that June titled "America's Lethal
The Times article, published in its opinion section, drew a link between the shooting and an earlier one, in 2011, where another man shot then-Democratic Rep. Gabriel Giffords in Arizona, wounding her and killing six others. According to the version of the editorial that was initially published, Palin incited that shooting because her political action committee posted an image on Facebook that put Giffords's district under crosshairs.
The Times corrected the article the next day, admitting that there was no established link between Palin's committee's post and the Giffords shooting. Palin sued anyway.
Elizabeth Williamson, a reporter at the Times who was a member of its editorial board in 2017, wrote the first draft of "America's Lethal Politics," which did not draw a direct link between the former Republican vice presidential candidate and the shooting. Bennet, while revising the piece, inserted the phrases Palin claimed were defamatory.
Bennet knew something was wrong when Twitter blew up
The trial, which began last week in federal court in Manhattan, has illuminated some parts of the Times's editorial writing process.
Grilled by Palin's attorney Shane Vogt on the stand Thursday, Bennet testified he did not "conduct any fact research" or search the Times's own coverage regarding Palin or the Giffords shooting, instead asking an assistant to supply research for his work.
Bennet took the blame for the erroneous phrases he inserted into the story. He said he wanted to make sure the editorial was published by a deadline around 8 p.m., when it could make it into the next day's print edition, he testified.
Bennet said, and court documents show, that he was alerted to an issue with the editorial by an email from Ross Douthat, a fellow New York Times Opinion staffer, later that evening after the piece was published online. In his email, Douthat said the use of "incitement" in the published editorial didn't have a sufficient basis. Bennet said he checked Twitter, where other people were expressing the same sentiment.
"The gist of what Ross was saying was being echoed by those tweets that I saw," he said.
The next morning, after around 5 a.m., Bennet tasked other members of his team with checking the "incitement" line he added into the article.
As inquiries from Insider (then known as Business Insider), Axios, and CNN poured in, Danielle Rhoades Ha, the Times's vice president of communications, got in touch with Bennet. By then, Bennet understood the Times needed to issue a correction.
Vogt walked Bennet through emails that were entered as exhibits in the case. Bennett and other Times staffers exchanged emails proposing different languages for corrections to append to the piece, as well as tweets addressing the issue.
Vogt also entered into evidence documents from Bennet's annual review, where he noted the editor did not suffer any consequences for his error in the editorial.
"There was no disciplinary action," Bennet said.
Bennet did note that he apologized in a later meeting with the Times's board of directors.
"I don't know if that qualifies as a reprimand, but it felt like one," he said.
Vogt asked if he ever apologized to Palin for the mistake. Bennet noted that he initially did in a statement meant for CNN reporter Oliver Darcy, but that Rhoades Ha edited it out because the Times had "a policy of not apologizing for corrections" in stories.
"My hope is that as a consequence of this process, now I have" apologized, Bennet said.
Bennet, who had also served as the editor-in-chief at The Atlantic for a decade before joining The Times, ultimately resigned from the Times in June 2020 after running an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton calling for the deployment of US military troops to quell American civilian protests. He's scheduled to continue testifying on Wednesday morning.
The trial was originally scheduled to begin on January 24, but was delayed after Palin, who opposes using safe coronavirus vaccines, tested positive for COVID-19. Palin dined out in restaurants at least twice following her positive test, prompting New York City officials to encourage everyone who came across her to get tested.
Palin plans to testify in the trial, which is expected to last up to two weeks.