“I’ll sue you for libel, you ink-stained bastard!” is the kind of idle threat heard by every reporter six times a day before lunch. No, you probably won’t! And if you do, I like my chances. American libel law strongly favors the press rather than the people we write about, and for excellent reason. Opinions, even extremely nasty ones, are protected. Hurrah! What a dim, gray, Soviet-scented discourse we’d have in this country if it were otherwise. Also, the media can be forgiven for honest mistakes. Believe it or not, “We’re too dumb to know what we said was false” is a legit defense.

It’s pretty hard to lose a libel case, but the Times has put itself in a dicey spot. The Times smeared Palin, plain and simple. They thought they’d get away with it because Palin is a public figure, and the national press has been unloading on her since the day John McCain picked her to be his running mate. But Palin’s lawyers are the ones who trounced Gawker so badly in the Hulk Hogan case that the site went under.

If I were the Times, I’d be looking forward to this trial about as much as you would spending winter in Juneau.