th authoritarianism and abuse of power. that s what we do. we re doing our jobs, and that noise is the sound a functioning democracy ways. ted, as you know all too well, going along with trump s attacks on the media, you see death threats against journalists. you see, you know, people like, you know, my longtime friend br brian carem, april ryan, getting all kinds of death threats because they went up against trump. we ll talk about this further another time, but really appreciate the insights. thanks so much for coming on. ted boutros, thanks again for your insights tonight. we appreciate it. so great to be with you, jim. thanks. and toxic polarization is poisoning america, but if there s any hope of finding the antidote, we need to understand what s fueling it. john avlon unpacks it all in tonight s reality check. there he is. that s coming up next. vazalore. is the first liquid-filled aspirin capsule
standard and the first amendment doesn t just protect journalists, it protects everyone and the supreme court and the new york times versus sullivan case in 1964 said, in a democracy, we want open, costed, caustic, vehement, sometimes nasty debate to flourish to be a check on the government, to be a check on public figures. the new yorktimes standard doesn t borrow all libel suits. so a private person can bring a libel case and doesn t have to prove actual malice. a public figure like ms. palin, if she could prove if the new york times intentionally made a false statement, if she can t prove it here, they corrected it quickly. it s extremely important to our democracy and it s going to be interesting to see how it plays out. i think ms. palin is going to lose. we ll soon see. ted boutros, thank you so much. good hearing from you. we ll be right back.
there s new testimony in the defamation trial of sarah palin versus the new york times, the times s formal editorial page editor today taking partial blame for the 2017 editorial at issue that falsely linked her political action committee to the 2011 shooting of congresswoman gabby giffords. quote, this is my fault. right, i wrote those sentences and i m not looking to shift the blame to anyone else so i just want to say that, but yeah, i mean, this is why we send playback to writers because they re the ones who reported the story. constitutional law and media attorney theodore butrose joins me i know. and full disclosure, mr. boutros has represented cnn on legal matters before. good to see you. if particular, i wonder, first of all, this is the first libel case against the times to go to trial in, what, 20 years? usually it s resolved before a jury.
things that we all know are false. i mean, it s not like it s ambiguous. and in perjury cases, it has to be very clear that the person has knowingly testified false. but our trump has made a career of, that including while he was president. it s dangerous. it s treacherous. so it will be interesting to see what happens. ted boutros, we have a space reserved for you the day you question donald trump under oath in that deposition. please come back. thank you very much for joining us tonight. i ll be there. thank you very much. we ll be right back with tonight s last word. word. knows everyone s unique. that s why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. oh, yeah. that s the spot. only pay for what you need. liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it s not a cure, but with one small pill