The bar for defamation in the United States is very high. You have to prove not only that the statement was a lie, but also that the writer either knew that it was false or had reckless disregard for obtaining the truth.

Libel suits happen frequently. All the major papers are quite versed in dealing with them. They rarely lose these cases.

I did A quick google search and can’t even find a libel case the NYT has lost in the last 30+ years. There was one case in 2003 where media outlets reported incorrectly that the times lost a libel case. In fact, they won the case, even though the jury agreed that the facts reported were false, because the plaintiff failed to prove malice (see https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/05/24/n...).