NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin against The New York Times. In the lawsuit, Palin, a Republican, had complained about an editorial linking campaign rhetoric to violent acts, including the 2011 shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona. An initial version of the editorial mistakenly accused a Palin political action committee of distributing a map depicting Democratic lawmakers beneath crosshairs, when the map actually showed electoral districts, not people, in crosshairs. Here is an excerpt from the court ruling.

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“Nowhere is political journalism so free, so robust, or perhaps so rowdy as in the United States.

In the exercise of that freedom, mistakes will be made, some of which will be hurtful to others.

Responsible journals will promptly correct their errors; others will not.

But if political journalism is to achieve its constitutionally endorsed role of challenging the powerful, legal redress by a public figure must be limited to those cases where the public figure has a plausible factual basis for complaining that the mistake was made maliciously, that is, with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard of its falsity.

Here, plaintiff’s complaint, even when supplemented by facts developed at an evidentiary hearing convened by the Court, fails to make that showing.

Accordingly, the complaint must be dismissed.”

— U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.