Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Ex-NYT editor James Bennet's second day of testimony continues in Sarah Palin's defamation suit.

NYT's counsel is up now.

ICYMI: Here's a roundup of Day One, with questioning of Bennet from Palin's lawyer. lawandcrime.com/high-profile/f… via @lawcrimenews

Some highlights so far:

Q: When you used the word “incite,” were you intending to convey only that “incite” meant direct orders?

A: No, no. You can incite hate. You can incite anger. You can incite passion. You can even incite doubt. [...] Incite requires an object as a verb.

Bennet:

"We were focused on [...] rhetoric on the left, which had become much hotter in the period. Things were worse. Things are worse today than they were then in 2017. [...]

We were focused on rhetoric on the left—and the right, but particularly on the left that day."

Bennet:

"The absolute drop-dead deadline was about 8 o’clock."

But he said that he was trying to get it in at around 6 and 7.

Asked why he didn't research the link between the Loughner shooting and the Sarah PAC map, Bennet gives multiple answers.

"I was functioning as the editor, not the reporter on this piece."

Also: "I didn’t think then & don’t think now that the map caused Jared Loughner to act."

Bennet on readers interpreting it that way:

"It didn't enter my mind."

He adds: "I was very conscious of the deadline."

Questioning turns to parsing this line of the editorial: "The sniper, James Hodgkinson, who was killed by Capitol Police officers, was surely deranged, and his derangement had found its fuel in politics."

Bennet says he added a "surely" to the draft, as a "hedge."

Little was known about the 2017 congressional baseball shooting at the time, and Hodgkinson's derangement was an "opinion,' Bennet said.

He adds he thought Hodgkinson was because only a deranged person would do such a thing.

Now they're parsing the line at the heart of the defamation suit: "the link to political incitement was clear."

Bennet says that if he thought the Sarah PAC map "caused" the Giffords shooting, he would have written that. It would have saved words.

Bennet says he thought the lines about "derangement" would have made that clear.

"I don't personally believe that anybody but that person is responsible—and their derangement—for an act like this."

Asked whether he knew readers would interpret his words differently, Bennet again says no.

"That's on me. That's my failure. I didn't."

Questioning turns to this passage about how "liberals should of course hold themselves to the same standards of decency."

Bennet: "It's true of opinion journalists, who are allowed to venture such judgments. News journalists aren't allowed to do such a thing."

Q: When you published "America's Lethal Politics," did you have any ill-will toward Ms. Palin?

A: No.

Asked whether he meant to convey that Loughner acted because of the crosshairs map, Bennet replies: "I did not."

After a morning recess, the Times counsel asks Bennet about him receiving an email by Ross Douthat criticizing the link to Palin.

"I was very concerned," Bennet says, noting that he saw similar and "quite harsh" criticism at the NYT editorial page on Twitter.

Bennet on the night that the editorial ran:

"I couldn't sleep."

Q: Why didn't you have anyone do that research [on Loughner's motivations]?

A: As I said, he was deranged. He was a lunatic. [...] His motives were his own. They were his own responsibility, and I thought that was clear.

Q: Did you know it was a mistake when you published this?

A: No.

(As the NYT's attorney shows Bennet a Twitter thread.)

Q: Can you explain what threading the tweets like this means for the jury?

Bennet explains what threading is.

Asked how he felt after learning he made a mistake, he said: "I felt terrible."

Q: Why is that?
A: It's just a terrible thing to make a mistake. I've edited and written hundreds of pieces on deadline, thousands of pieces overall.

Bennet: "I've made very few mistakes, at least those that I know of."

Worse, it said, this mistake looked "partisan" and undermined his reputation for calling "balls and strikes."

Bennet says he continues to believe the three main arguments of the editorial are sound.

Summarized, they are:

* This was a horrible event.
* People should calm down their rhetoric.
* The ready availability of guns helps lead to mass shootings.

Bennet: "I wanted to acknowledge that we scre— made a mistake."

Bennet: "We don't promise to be perfect. We promise to try our damnedest to be perfect."

Q: Did you take this mistake seriously?
A: Yes.

Redirect:

Palin's lawyer notes that the draft editorial didn't use the word "incitement."

Bennet agrees.

Bennet on his assumption on the 2017 congressional baseball shooting:

"I made an assumption that politics had something to do with his decision to attack those congressman."