It's pathetic. That’s the only word that can be used to describe the fallout from The New York Times’botched Brett Kavanaugh story. To recap, the Times’ Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly decided to write a book attacking Kavanaugh, trying to reveal that all the allegations lobbed at the sitting Supreme Court justice were true. Not the case. In fact, it’s pretty much a worthless book, but they did supposedly have some bombshell about a new accuser who alleged that Kavanaugh shoved his private parts in front of her, like Deborah Ramirez alleged, during a college party at Yale. Ramirez’s story was part of the Democrat-media complex’s coordinated political hit against Kavanaugh during his confirmation process. Yet, there is a problem. This supposed new accuser doesn’t remember this ever happening. So, it’s a nothing burger. The Times added that portion made a note, and totally changed the entire story. Pogrebin and Kelly blamed the editors. Then, they attacked the Left’s favorite target: Fox News (via Vox) [Italicized text indicates a portion of NYT Story):
…the Times did not, in fact, “correct” anything.
To make a “correction” to a story indicates something was factually wrong. The newspaper did not acknowledge anything of this sort. Instead, the Times story — based on a forthcoming book Pogrebin and Kelly are writing about the Kavanaugh allegations — was updated to say that friends of the student who may have been assaulted say she does not remember the alleged incident.
Here’s the relevant passage of the Times piece, with the clause that was added in the second version in bold:
We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaugh in his freshman year that echoes Ms. Ramirez’s allegation. A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly. We corroborated the story with two officials who have communicated with Mr. Stier; the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say she does not recall the episode.
To be clear, the change is a significant one. If the student doesn’t recall the episode, the accusation that Kavanaugh and others may have assaulted her is arguably weaker than if she did. But, contrary to what Fox News would have you believe, the change to the Times story does not prove that the alleged incident didn’t happen.
It’s definitely Fox News’ fault that you’ve spent the last five days stepping on rakes. https://t.co/2NQiMGMWnc
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 18, 2019
This article centers solely around the fact that Fox News is calling this a “correction” when the New York Times called it just an “Editor’s Note.” Okay...
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) September 18, 2019
“As soon as we realized this, we corrected it.”
— Robin Pogrebin (@rpogrebin)
Literally Yesterday.pic.twitter.com/m9nJK8nboX https://t.co/y0rGgqw2F3
In case you missed the @nytimes latest stealth edit: https://t.co/NKbNIZJSMa
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) September 16, 2019
The @nytimes in the morning:
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) September 16, 2019
BREAKING: New assault allegations surface against Justice Kavanaugh.
The @nytimes in the evening: Correction, we forgot to tell you that the alleged victim says that the alleged assault never happened.
THIS IS WHY AMERICANS DON’T TRUST YOU! pic.twitter.com/BwPtnMaAhY
The story:
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) September 15, 2019
• Liberal activist A says that Kavanaugh assulted lady B back when he was in college.
• The @nytimes contacts lady B.
• Lady B tells @nytimes she has no idea what liberal activist A is talking about.
• @nytimes publishes story without comments from Lady B.
Yeah, it is a significant change, as in renders the entire story worthless. We all know about Ramirez, Christine Blasey Ford, and Julie Swetnick—the latter of which was dismissed outright for being totally outrageous. Oh, and she pretty much recanted the entire allegation because it was trash. Ford and Ramirez have zero corroborating witnesses. Leland Keyser, the star witnesses for Ford, now says she was bullied into revising her remarks because they didn’t sufficiently back-up the former’s account that Kavanaugh had raped her in high school. She also says Ford’s account made no sense. She wasn’t the only one who thought that; anyone with cognitive function knew Ford’s account was sloppy. This isn’t about Fox News. This is about the Times trying to get the Kavanaugh impeachment circus going and totally failing in the effort. This Hail Mary was denied. Kavanaugh is still on the Supreme Court and Trump is still president. Deal with it. Also, if this is seriously about a correction and an editor’s note, this is a distinction without a difference. And the reason why the new information was added was over the fact that this was a mistake.
The new accuser doesn't remember? How can you omit that?
Whether the writers had already included it in their original copy remains to be seen. I don’t trust liberals or their media allies, so when you forget to include something and then add it—isn’t that also a correction? And this wasn’t Fox News’ doing. Don’t get mad at us when we point out your bad behavior. It’s not Fox News’ fault that you got a face-full of buckshot trying to take down a superbly qualified Supreme Court justice. People should know when they’ve lost and when they’ve been conquered. For the Left, they have yet to learn that valuable lesson.
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