Well, true. But note that he has not actually defended the truth value of the claim he made, which is (is it not?) a felony corruption charge against Cuomo. Not a good sign. That "to the best of his knowledge" is just what gets dissected in front of a jury in these kind of trials, and it's rarely a pretty sight.
But what is Cuomo's deal? This is ancient history and would have been all but forgotten, buried among Palast's far more damaging claims re other figures. How does he come up with $15 million? Does New York libel law contain a punitive damages provision? Because I can't see how Cuomo could argue $15 worth of damages, let alone $15 million.
Is this a way to get Palast? Is the idea to get the word around that he's a fabricator as a way to shut him up? Did someone rely on Cuomo's notorious thin skin and ego to trump his notorious political cowardice to goad this suit into being? Or is Cuomo capable of this useless and counter-productive gesture all on his own? Because whatever the truth value of Palast's claim, only a fool would want to give him effective carte blanche (through the discovery process) to go through the minute details of a public career. Palast lives for that shit. It's why I like him. It almost allows me to ignore the self-aggrandizement and hyperbole that's dominated too much of his work lately, since "BDMCB" hit.
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 12:13:29 -0500
>New York Post [Page Six] - December 29, 2003
>
>SUED BY MARIO, WANTS DEBATE
>
>AUTHOR Greg Palast is laughing off Mario Cuomo's $15 million libel
>suit and vowing that the former governor "will not intimidate me."
>
>Cuomo sued Palast and his publisher, Penguin, earlier this month for
>accusing him of fixing a court case in the 1980s in Palast's book
>"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Palast - whose award-winning
>stories appear on BBC television and the Guardian Newspapers - says
>of the suit, "It's goofy."
>
>Palast claims he was simply "reporting the news." He told PAGE SIX,
>"There are two Cuomos, Mario Jekyll and Mario Hyde. In public, Cuomo
>is the sanctimonious defender of the Bill of Rights and the working
>man, but here he's a bully-boy allergic to the First Amendment."
>
>Cuomo's court papers charge that Palast and Penguin "overstepped the
>bounds of their protection under the First Amendment." The author is
>now challenging Cuomo to a public debate, but so far the one-time
>great orator is confining his remarks to court filings.
>
>Palast says he wants to "give the governor and me a chance to set the
>record straight - no lawyers, just face to face and fact to fact."
>
>Northeast Public Radio commentator Alan Chartock - who co-hosted a
>radio show with Cuomo for 18 years - has offered to host the debate.
>
>As the suit goes forward, Palast says he looks forward to the chance
>to review until-now secret files of communications between the
>ex-governor, his political donors and benefactors.
>
>"I stand by every word and comma," Palast says. "Cuomo's attempt to
>censor reports published in the public interest will not intimidate
>me. Thankfully, I have the support of my publisher."
>
>The dispute centers on the period when Palast was chief investigator
>for Suffolk County in the successful prosecution of a civil
>racketeering case against the builders of the Shoreham nuclear plant.
>Long Island electricity customers received approximately $400 million
>in compensation in settlement of the litigation brought after
>Palast's discovery of alleged fraud.
>
>Palast's book mentions Cuomo's involvement in that 1988 trial and
>settlement. "The real issue," said Palast, "is the right of a
>reporter to write the facts to the best of his knowledge free of the
>fear of financially ruinous lawsuits and intimidation."
>
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