Re that violence loving, gun toting, helicopter hunting approving sno billy grifter's (my opinion) law suit,

 And calls for the "actual malice" standard to be revised in defamation actions?   Talk about people setting themselves up for being hoisted on their own petards?  And I mean the right wing lunatics who want that?

I do not want that, let me say up front.  But can you imagine any well known conservative media provider lasting in business for more than five years if the standard gets lowered for proving defamation of a public official or figure?   FNC  will get buried.  The even more lunatic copycats will be wiped off the map.  No insurance company will cover that exposure.  And if the law gets changed, following a Supreme Court rewrite and ruling?  Even given the one year statute of limitations  in many states, I have to predict a crippling onset of cases.   One of the reasons FNC gets away with so much over the top, flat out hateful shit is the  "actual malice" standard.  Granted, that Dominion lawsuit against them is a fairly dangerous threat to FNC.  And then there is Col. Vindman's.  So FNC has a good deal of exposure already.

I mean sure. I want them crushed.  But I think we are better off with the "actual malice" standard still in play.  Historically  judges disfavor defamation cases.  I should know.  I got my ass kicked pursuing a very good one.  Anyway

Last thoughts.  Palin is so associated with violent rhetoric that her case should have been dismissed, as it was, had been.  And her targeting map was so inflammatory that it is a reasonable interpretation that she was solicitating violence against her political party's opponents.  Far as I know, the reason for the overturning of the dismissal on appeal was even if technically within law.  It could have called harmless error, as on it's face  the pleading did not meet the necessary level for a prima facie case where "actual malice" cold have been proven, particularly how quickly the NYT  corrected the story.  And her claim of damages is fatuous.  She is the harpy who is famous for calling the "mainstream"  media  the "lamestream" media.  People who read and identify with the views of as she calls them the "lamestream" media tend to despise her already.

No real harm.  No provable damages.

Nota Bene:  I am still anticipating the result of the appeal of the Oberlin College case.  It is weird but not surprising that in some US states being called a racist is not considered actionable as defamation, but not all, as it should be.  But as we are now living in the anti anti racist times, and as I really don't know shit about the appellate courts in Ohio?  I can't really say there is hope for them to adopt that as the standard, going forward.  It is so hard to predict shit.  But at minimum, the damages were bullshit.  And in my understating of shit. The judge fucked up multiple times pre and during the trial. Most notably, fucked up in not dismissing  this shit.  That case was mostly some town vs gown treasure hunt. It might not be a rule of jurisprudence, but call shit as it looks!