'Unbelievable': NYT's 'journalism malpractice' on Kavanaugh

FPI / September 16, 2019

Another leftist media “bombshell” has failed to detonate.

The New York Times on Sept. 14 published an article in which it revealed there was a new accuser of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In an article adapted from their forthcoming book “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation”, writers Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly claim they had uncovered a “previously unreported” accusation against Kavanaugh.

In the Sept. 14 article, the writers claim:

“We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaugh in his freshman year that echoes Ms. [Deborah] 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.)”

What the report failed to mention is that the alleged victim does not recall the alleged incident and did not want to talk to the media. The report didn’t say this even though the writers knew this information.

“The only reason we know the Times withheld this information is because the Times got caught,” Breibart’s John Nolte noted on Sept. 16. “Thankfully, and the Times obviously didn’t expect this, a few conservatives received an advanced copy of the book; they located this pertinent fact and blew it up on social media.”

Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist is one of the people to receive an advance copy of the book, which is due for release on Sept. 17. Hemingway tweeted: “The book notes, quietly, that the woman Max Stier named as having been supposedly victimized by Kavanaugh and friends denies any memory of the alleged event.”

National Review noted: “Omitting this fact from the New York Times story is one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in recent memory.”

After being called out on social media, the Times issued the following correction on Sunday evening:

“Editors’ Note: An earlier version of this article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, did not include one element of the book’s account regarding as assertion by a Yale classmate that friends of Brett Kavanaugh pushed his penis into the hand of a female student at a drunken dorm party. The book reports the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident. That information has been added to the article.”

President Donald Trump called out the Times in a Sept. 16 tweet: “The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim.” @foxandfriends The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh - Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.”

Trump had tweeted on Sept. 15: "Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable."

Nolte noted that even the updated story “is a lie.”

The updated story says: “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.”

Pogrebin and Kelly also fail to point out that Stier, a Democrat operative and former attorney for the Clintons, also refused to talk to the Times.

“Finally, when the Times claims in its update that it ‘corroborated the story’ that’s a lie,” Nolte wrote. “All the Times did was talk to a couple of people who say Stier told them about a sexual assault that the victim doesn’t even recall happening. That’s not corroboration, that’s ‘hearsay.’ ”

Leftists, who have become very fond of the blacklist in the Trump era, immediately pounced on the NY Times article prior to the correction and called for Kavanaugh to be impeached.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, both 2020 Democratic presidential candidates called for Kavanaugh's impeachment.

Warren tweeted on Sept. 15: “Last year the Kavanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations against him. Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”

Harris tweeted: “I sat through those hearings. Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people. He was put on the Court through a sham process and his place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice. He must be impeached.”

Free Press International