If you thought the mainstream media’s crusade against Kavanaugh came to an end shortly after his Supreme Court confirmation just over two weeks ago, you would be mostly correct. However, over at the Washington Post, apparently not everyone got the memo. In fact, just this past Friday, one of the Post’s “Reliable Source” reporters tried to reinvigorate the controversy by creating a false story claiming that Georgetown Prep, Justice Kavanaugh’s high school alma-mater, is looking for a new “director of alumni relations” to manage the school’s reputational fallout that resulted from his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
As it turned out, however, the core element of this story is a complete fabrication, and the Postknew it before publication time. As emails that were made public over the weekend clearly show, Georgetown Prep’s creation of the alumni relations position happened back in Julyof this year, months before any of the salacious accusations of sexual assault, attempted rape, or gang rape came out against then-Judge Kavanaugh.
Despite receiving this information about the job’s July posting directly from a representative for the school, Postgossip reporter Emily Heil —who had specifically asked the spokesman about when the position was published —choose to ignore his answer, incorrectly asserting in her piece that the posting had been created “this week” (sometime between October 14-18) [emphasis mine]:
When graduates of your school are getting name-checked on Saturday Night Live, (oh, hey there P.J., Timmy and Squi!) it might be time to . . . um, reach out to them, maybe?
Seems Georgetown Prep thinks so: The elite Bethesda school, famously attended by Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, posted a job listing this week for a director of alumni relations.According to the want ad, the Jesuit high school is looking for someone to take on the role of "identifying, engaging and cultivating alumni."
The listing went up after Georgetown alumni were very much in the news: Kavanaugh, of course, dominated the headlines during his confirmation hearings, which were filled with talk of his high school days because of the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were both teens. Many of Kavanaugh's classmates were of interest, too, because of their proximity to the alleged incident and to Georgetown Prep's reportedly hard-partying culture, a topic that was raised repeatedly in the Senate hearings.
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In the original piece, which has been substantially revised as of this week, Heil acknowledged that she had read the Georgetown Spokesman’s email, but nowhere made mention of his information about the correct date of the job posting.
Heil’s exercise in following WaPo’s highest journalistic standards was cut short on Saturday when an anonymous Twitter user published the emails between Heil and the Georgetown spokesman. The emails clearly show that Heil had been informed of the falsity of her piece’s major premise mere minutes (eight to be exact) after she first sent her questions about the story to Georgetown Prep:
If anyone can't read the first version: pic.twitter.com/e5yF7iT6AQ
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) October 20, 2018
Not long after these emails were made public on Twitter, Heil directly responded to AG Conservative by claiming that her fake story was caused by “a completely unintentional error”:
This was a completely unintentional error-I read right over the date in haste. Story was corrected and correction is noted. Have a great weekend, all!
— Emily Heil (@emilyaheil) October 20, 2018
This explanation did not sit well with most people on social media, especially given that the main part of the email she had “read over in haste” was only two short sentences in response to her main question:
Emily,
Thank you for your note.
The job was posted in July 2018.
In this first reply to Heil, the Georgetown spokesman then directed Heil to a few boilerplate statements about the Kavanaugh controversy, but the core of his message really wasn’t too much longer than “War and Peace,” let alone all that difficult to read (as you can obviously see).
Later on Friday night, after Georgetown Prep noticed the fake story about their school had been published, the same Georgetown Prep spokesman reached out again to Heil to request a correction:
Emily,
I noted in my message below that our Director of Alumni Relations position was posted in July 2018. Your article says “The listing went up after Georgetown alumni were very much in the news.” This is not true and I, in fact, gave you the month in which the position was posted.
Please correct your story immediately.
The Post did eventually issue an open correction to Heil’s piece such that the first three paragraphs now read [emphasis mine]:
When graduates of your school are getting name-checked on “Saturday Night Live,” (oh, hey there P.J., Timmy and Squi!) it might be time to .?.?. um, reach out to them, maybe?
Seems Georgetown Prep thinks so: The elite Bethesda school, famously attended by Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, is advertising for a director of alumni relations.According to the want ad, the Jesuit high school is looking for someone to take on the role of “identifying, engaging and cultivating alumni.”
The advertisement, while first listed in July, is circulating as Georgetown alumni are very much in the news:Kavanaugh, of course, dominated the headlines during his confirmation hearings, which were filled with talk of his high school days because of the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were both teens. Many of Kavanaugh’s classmates were of interest, too, because of their proximity to the alleged incident and to Georgetown Prep’s reportedly hard-partying culture, a topic that was raised repeatedly in the Senate hearings.
At the end of the piece, the Post added in a new line correctly stating that “The [Georgetown Prep] spokesman also noted that the job posting began circulating well before the confirmation hearings.”
Of course, this admission completely guts the only key factual point of the Post’s entire story, but hey: Never let the truth get in the way of a good narrative, right?
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