You said "The burden is on the accuser to prove that the charges are true, not on the accused to prove a negative." That's a standard in a court of law for *most" situations. It's not a standard for printing a news story (or a slur story).
Of course, even though Cain is a public figure, Politico may still be open to being nailed for printing a story with reckless disregard for the truth.
With regard to the issue of documentation, I find it extremely suspicious that even after the NRA gave permission for the accuser to speak, she still did not produce the "agreement." What does that tell you? I suspect that there is stuff in that agreement that the accuser doesn't want publicized, so I do believe that the fact that the accusers didn't produce those documents to be significant.
It's also suspicious that the accusations have only come from those associated with the NRA (a very short time in Cain's career), and that they came out of Chicago. As you probably know, Obama twice was able to destroy opponents with scandal accusation. Perhaps the GOP establishment and the dems are working together. I have no idea, but, to date, there have been no developments that would lead me to definitively believe one party or the other. We simply don't have enough evidence.
In practice, the "actual malice" is almost impossible to prove. If there were two settlements, we really start getting into an area of - where was the defamation?
With regard to the issue of documentation, I find it extremely suspicious that even after the NRA gave permission for the accuser to speak, she still did not produce the "agreement."
I haven't followed it closely. Did she refuse to give the NRA the right to release the agreement? I will say that long before Obama appeared on anyone's radar screen, I was naturally skeptical of anything that came out of Chicago, Memphis, or Little Rock.
And not Little Rock because of Clinton. Little Rock was the mob and gambling and corruption before Las Vegas existed. Memphis is still a place where I don't think I would trust a politician or a law enforcement agent. When it comes to Memphis in recent years, I have only two words: "Logan Young."
I don't believe in conspiracies, but I'm convinced that man was murdered. Although three days after he was murdered, the Memphis police decided that it was an accidental slip and fall against the bannister of his stairs that caused him initially to be "beaten beyond recognition."