It’s hard for publications to lose these cases. The bar for proving malice is sky-high. And if you’re a public figure, forget about it. Well, for the first time in over 50 years, The New York Times will have to fork over potentially millions of dollars over a 2023 piece about a shooting involving basketball players from the University of Alabama that left a 23-year-old woman dead. Of course, the Times, bloated by ego, stood by its reporting. They were wrong, issuing an editor’s note. The piece details the whole saga, including the reporter’s error and the behind-the-scenes moves to verify the information. The thing is, the victim, Kai Spears, wasn’t near the shooting and wasn’t involved. One thing that seems lost in the piece is a) the ever-degrading value of anonymous sources and b) that they ran with this based on one source.
For the First Time in 50 Years, The New York Times Lost a Defamation Suit. Here’s Why.
