‘I Blew It’: Ex-NY Times Editor Offers Tearful Apology to Sarah Palin at Libel Hearing

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Former New York Times opinion editor James Bennet issued a tearful apology to Sarah Palin on the witness stand Thursday at a libel hearing over a 2017 editorial in the newspaper.

Testifying in federal court during the revived defamation trial, Bennet choked up as he admitted he “blew it” by erroneously linking Palin’s political action committee to the 2011 mass shooting that critically wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others.

“I did, and I do apologize to Gov. Palin for this mistake,” Bennet said, visibly emotional as a lawyer handed him a box of tissues.

Judge Jed Rakoff called the apology “heartfelt” and “moving.”

Palin, for her part, was unmoved, per the Associated Press.

“Let’s see, how many years ago was the untruth?” she said outside the courthouse, brushing off the emotional moment before departing for the airport. She is set to testify next week.

The original editorial, written in 2017 after a gunman shot then-House GOP Whip Steve Scalise at a congressional baseball practice, argued that incendiary political rhetoric could incite violence. It cited a map from Palin’s PAC showing Democratic lawmakers’ districts under stylized crosshairs — falsely suggesting a direct link between that image and the 2011 shooting.

The Times issued a correction soon after publishing, stating the editorial had “incorrectly stated that a link existed” and had “incorrectly described” the map.

That correction — and Bennet’s testimony that the mistake was unintentional — was enough to win the case in 2022. But an appeals court gave Palin a second shot, ruling that the trial judge made procedural errors.