As Twitchy reported, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler did a hit piece on Sen. Tim Scott, suggesting his claim that his family went from “cotton to Congress in one lifetime” wasn’t exactly true. See, Scott’s grandfather left school at age 11 to pick cotton, but it was for a family farm, so his story overlooks the Scott family’s privilege of being land-owners.
The piece was so blatantly a hit job that even Jonah Goldberg managed to muster up, well, this:
So I’m finally getting to this. I would like to think that if @GlennKesslerWP had to do it all over again, he’d have not run this. Indeed, by the time I got to the end my chief reaction was “Why publish this?” Even on its own terms, there was no rating. https://t.co/yWSYquRcNj
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) April 24, 2021
No, there was no rating, and if he had to do it all over again, of course he would have. He promoted the hell out of the piece on Twitter.
There are lots of things you would like to think that are objectively false.
— I got your #Unity right here (@jtLOL) April 24, 2021
Honestly it felt like his incessant re-sharing of this piece was actually done to rub people's noses in it. This really isn't a case of something poorly thought-out and potentially regretted later.
— Noam Blum ? (@neontaster) April 24, 2021
Both execution and delivery of this racist hit piece were completely intentional. pic.twitter.com/2gHRDp5SJE
— Extremely Careless (@Shanghaibeast) April 24, 2021
Wrong. The only reason why he would’ve rethought this horrendous article is the ratio he received. If it went positive for him, he’d had RT it 1000x
— SeldenGADawgs (@SeldenGADawgs) April 24, 2021
That would explain the ICYMI reposts
— Coshoct (@Coshoct) April 24, 2021
He reposted it. I don’t think these people ever think they make mistakes.
— Happily Sideways (@happilysideways) April 24, 2021
It was posted and reposted at least 4x yesterday. So one can believe he wouldn't have, but reposting says something else. He was proud of the piece.
— Dave Pollock (@Dave_WP) April 24, 2021
And yet he did publish it, which is telling.
— Lionel Mandrake (@LMandrakeJr) April 24, 2021
He's re-tweeted it a couple of times. . .doesn't feel like he'd second-guess this one.
— Richard Maxton (@LastSon76) April 24, 2021
He shared it like 4 times, Jonah.
— Jordan (@jordanstuff4) April 24, 2021
Since Glenn tweeted it out again with "ICYMI," I'd say that your assessment of him is completely wrong. When are you going to recognize that these "journalists" don't give a damn about the truth; it's all about defending the narrative, and their buddies in power?
— Business Master Crapplefratz (@Crapplefratz) April 24, 2021
Nice to see a weak response to a racist tinged piece. Guess defending someone on the right isn't really your thing anymore. Good to know
— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) April 24, 2021
He not only ran it, he posted it and reposted it again and again out of deviance of being ratioed off this platform.
Facts be damned, you’d have been better off not responding than tweet this weak shit.
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) April 24, 2021
You don't have to be nasty, Jonah. But damn this is some weak ass tea.
— J (@ARaised_Eyebrow) April 24, 2021
Fact checks on personal issues kind of misses the point about…fact checks.
Very few people care about this.
What they do care about is when politicians lie about policies that affect the public at large.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 24, 2021
Go back under your bridge, you're worthless.
— When The Levee Breaks (@eriContrarian) April 24, 2021
Thank you for this hard hitting insight.
— Still Not Banned (@gfigg42) April 24, 2021
Can’t believe it took you 24 hours to put out this slight wrist slap
— Forum Non (@ForumNon) April 24, 2021
The hardest condemnation from Jonah.
— Opie Archibald (@OpieArchibald) April 24, 2021
I am shooketh to my core.
— Joseph Mobile (@JoeMobes90) April 24, 2021
This is an embarrassing tepid take.
— Mac Watson (@macwatson17) April 24, 2021
It’s so disheartening and embarrassing what you and French have become. And I mean that genuinely.
— Publius (@Madisonianism) April 24, 2021
— Dave loves Infrastructure (@bfmva7xsp) April 24, 2021
This is the sort of benefit of the doubt that Glenn has absolutely not earned but is given anyway because…I honestly can’t come up with a valid reason.
— The Iron Yuppie (@Iron_Yuppie) April 24, 2021
Or maybe… and I know this might come as a shock to some… he absolutely, wholeheartedly thinks that this is all completely acceptable behavior when the target is an ideological enemy. You know… almost as if there were, ultimately, two very different sets of rules in play. ?
— W. Trevor Manning ن (@Kardea) April 24, 2021
That’s your take? That Glenn regrets this? I mean there are a lot of things I “would like to think” too, but there’s no basis for thinking that here.
— Jamie DellaBonna (@JDellabonna) April 24, 2021
Respectfully, there is no evidence that this is the case.
— WNCRobert (@WncRobert) April 24, 2021
Honestly you deserve to be ratio’d for this take.
— William (@lord_sov) April 24, 2021
He gets the benefit of the doubt from a guy who wanted so badly to believe some yahoos beat a cop to death with a fire extinguisher.
— Dennis the Underrated (@spongeworthy2) April 24, 2021
I’ll say this. Besides it being a naked hit piece, it betrays a lack of knowledge about southern poverty. Being “land poor” was a common condition for many white and black southerners after the Civil War right up through the 1970’s.
— Coshoct (@Coshoct) April 24, 2021
Having hundreds of acres didn’t make one affluent. People worked themselves to the bone to survive and to keep the land in the family.
— Coshoct (@Coshoct) April 24, 2021
Why publish this?
He published it because Scott is giving the response to Biden next week.
— Matt Carriere (@mattcarriere) April 24, 2021
Because they needed any kind of negativity toward Tim Scott before his SotU rebuttal. Truth be damned, as usual.
— Philip Jagoe (@philjagoe) April 24, 2021
Related:
‘Seriously?’ WaPo’s Glenn Kessler gets torched for ‘fact-check’ on Sen. Tim Scott going ‘from cotton to Congress in 1 lifetime’ https://t.co/CXKT4bjnRE
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 23, 2021