Of course anyone can sue for anything. But to win you have to prove knew it was false and published it with malicious intent. They don’t have to prove anything. How would you prove they made it up? Infuriating as it may be it would stifle honest reporting otherwise. You could never print any allegations unless the source was willing to go public and testify in court.
Well, Carol Burnett obviously did, because didn't she win megabucks many years ago? So, it can be done. And as poster scruzawa mentioned earlier:
It wouldn’t cost him anything to mention a lawsuit against the NE.
The fact that he's not even mentioning one says so much. But of course, even without that little detail, it seems so obvious that he's lying.
Do you think Judge Judy would buy any of his "excuses"? I don't. I believe she'd call him guilty right away, in the same way that she said she knew that Clinton was lying about Lewinsky.