Roy Moore Was Banned from the Mall but Still Won His Defamation Case

Plus: when the Hindu right came for Bollywood; waiting for the school bus in Uvalde; and the problematic-male confessional. View in browser | Update your preferences Tuesday, October 11, 2022 In today’s newsletter, the future of libel law, and then: • When the Hindu right came for Bollywood • Waiting for the school bus in Uvalde • The problematic-male confessional Roy Moore Was Banned from the Mall but Won His Defamation Suit A jury in Alabama awarded the former Senate candidate more than eight million dollars. A lawyer for the defense says that the case reflects a worrying trend. Photograph by Julie Bennett / AP Five years ago, Charles Bethea was reporting on the Senate race in Alabama when he visited the Gadsden Mall, northeast of Birmingham, where more than dozen people he spoke to, including police officers and former store managers, said that the Republican candidate, Roy Moore, had been banned from the mall for bothering teen-age girls. Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, lost the election. He also began filing lawsuits. This year, in August, he won one of them, brought against a Democratic Party-aligned PAC that helped fund a 2017 ad, in which a narrator describes Moore’s pursuit of underage girls, quoting various news outlets—including Bethea’s reporting. “The jury,” Bethea writes, “which was composed of five men and three women, all but one of them white, rendered a verdict in less than two hours, awarding Moore more than eight million dollars in damages.” Bethea delves into how the case unfolded—with surprise testimony from a former officer at the mall—and how it has set off crucial questions about the future of libel law. —Jessie Li, newsletter editor Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » Editor’s Picks Letter from India When the Hindu Right Came for Bollywood The industry used to honor India’s secular ideals—but, since the rise of Narendra Modi, it’s been flooded with stock Hindu heroes and Muslim villains. By Samanth Subramanian Portfolio Waiting for the School Bus in Uvalde After a horrific shooting, a morning ritual takes on new meaning. Culture Dept. Our Columnists The Vices and Virtues of the Problematic-Male Confessional A strange new entry to the genre is “Predator,” an obsessive meditation on the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster. By Jay Caspian Kang Afterword A Man Who Loved Rattlesnakes Eugene DeLeon liked that he was doing something helpful in town. By Susan Orlean The Front Row “Amsterdam” Is an Exemplary Work of Resistance Cinema Like the best of Chaplin’s work, David O. Russell’s star-crammed historical fantasy brims with both exuberance and rage. By Richard Brody Food Memories Recipes from the Survivors of Auschwitz Survivors of the Holocaust meet up to launch a cookbook—recipes for matzo-ball soup, kogel mogel, and Marion Wiesel’s onionless latkes, favored by her husband, Elie. By Hannah Goldfield Sketchbook The Story They Don’t Tell You About Mary’s Little Lamb A song my son and I sang to his kid. By Roz Chast Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Matt Jackson Daily Shouts Carrie Bradshaw Writes Her Column While Trapped in a Corn Maze Women in their thirties have to be more realistic about love. They also have to be more realistic about their ability to finish a corn maze. By Maeve Dunigan Crossword A Moderately Challenging Puzzle Deadly siren of German legend: seven letters. By Aimee Lucido Daily Cartoon Tuesday, October 11th By Julia Suits P.S. “I wish ‘Imagine’ would come true. . . . I don’t want that big house we built for ourselves in England. I don’t want the bother of owning all these big houses and big cars. . . . I’ll cash in my chips, and anything that’s left I’ll make the best use of.” That’s John Lennon, speaking with The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg in 1972, about his song “Imagine,” which was released as a single on this day fifty-one years ago. The song has been put to many uses since then—including in a montage released at the start of the pandemic, in which celebrities sang different parts. Slate called that video “one of the worst things to have ever happened.” Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.