Sarah Palin Suing New York Times for Defamation

Former Governor of Alaska and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is suing the New York Times for defamation.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Palin says she seeks to "hold The Times accountable for defaming her" when the editorial board suggesting that she was responsible for a 2011 mass shooting that wounded Arizona Democrat Gabby Giffords and killed six people.

The controversy erupted June 14th, when the newspaper's editorial page, writing about the attack on GOP congressmen at a baseball field that left Representative Steve Scalise and three others wounded, referenced the 2011 shooting and linked Palin's political action committee to the attack.

The editorial accused Palin's group of "political incitement" and unintentionally inspiring the shooter to carry out his horrific act.

The editorial claimed there was a "clear" link when Palin's political action committee "circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords...under stylized crosshairs."

Palin shot back, saying in the lawsuit that, "The Times Editorial Board, which represents the "voice" of The Times, falsely stated as a matter of fact to millions of people that Mrs. Palin incited Jared Loughner's January 8, 2011, shooting rampage."

Palin says no such link exists and criticized the paper for not "acknowledged that Mrs. Palin did not incite a deranged man to commit murder." Palin added, "The Times should have apologized."

The Times later issued a correction admitting that the newspaper "incorrectly described a map distributed by a political action committee before that shooting."

The updated editorial added:

"An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords," the Times said. "In fact, no such link was established."