As Twitchy told you yesterday, the Department of Labor has reinstated Leif Olson, who was unfairly — not to mention unethically — smeared as anti-Semitic by Bloomberg’s Ben Penn. Inquiring minds wanted to know: after Bloomberg had stated earlier that they “stand behind” Penn’s hit job because Olson had resigned after Penn’s piece was published, how would they react upon learning that Olson had been reinstated?
Well, now we know. And, as expected, it’s crap.
They’ve amended their headline to remove the characterization of Olson’s Facebook posts as anti-Semitic. Initially, the headline read “Trump Labor Aide Quits After Anti-Semitic Facebook Posts Surface.”
Hey bud you gonna apologize or nah?https://t.co/JxJYwGSunk https://t.co/H1ByJwHggi pic.twitter.com/jSkjdovqXP
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) September 5, 2019
Here’s what it says now:
Thing is, the headline still sucks:
The updated headline is still bullshit. That post didn't "surface." @benjaminpenn dug it up. pic.twitter.com/rGVj2hSuVz
— "Fredo" is racist toward Italians who are dumb (@jtLOL) September 5, 2019
Exactly. And this is still at the top of the post:
The “reference” was an obviously sarcastic dig at the anti-Semitic Alt-Right. Bloomberg Law doesn’t seem to want to draw much attention to that — or to the correction itself. As far as we can tell, Bloomberg Law’s most recent tweet about the Olson story was this:
Four hours after Bloomberg Law requested comment from the White House and Labor Department about the recently-appointed official's Facebook post, the department said he has resigned. https://t.co/oouvue72Xq
— Bloomberg Law (@BLaw) September 3, 2019
They also retweeted this:
Texas conservative Leif Olson exits after 18 days at the Labor Department following question about his Facebook posts. Scoop from @BLaw's @benjaminpenn. https://t.co/QGBLCZmaiw
— Paul Albergo (@palbergo) September 3, 2019
Both of those tweets are pimping the original, dishonest story. It seems pretty safe to say that Bloomberg isn’t actually interested in telling the truth.
The whole article should be taken down since the basis of the article was caused by the "journalist" unfounded attack to begin with.
— Tickler (@Tickeller) September 5, 2019
Bloomberg should retract the article and issue an unequivocal apology to Olson. And, if they really wanted to rectify this, they’d make Penn face consequences for his journalistic malpractice. Speaking of Penn … what’s he up to?
Strangely, @benjaminpenn has gone into radio silence after his slander of Leif Olson was exposed and his shoddy 'journalism' was discredited.
Perhaps he's busy learning to code.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 5, 2019
He should definitely learn to code. Hell, Bloomberg should be learning to code right now.
This really betrays the claim that this was about just about news, that they only reported about this because it was newsworthy.
If his resignation was newsworthy, his reinstatement is substantially moreso. https://t.co/Tn3eSjYp7r— PoliMath (@politicalmath) September 5, 2019
Yep. It was purely political from the start.
***
Update:
Well, well, well … this is interesting:
Slight update: After the Labor Department reinstated Leif Olson, Bloomberg Law published a new story noting Olson had rejoined the agency. I'm told, however, reporters at Bloomberg Law were instructed not to tweet the new story out. It has also not been promoted by @BLaw.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 5, 2019
So, Bloomberg’s strategy really is just trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug. So journalism. Much integrity.
HAHAHAHAH https://t.co/nhbGiFKuf7
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) September 5, 2019
Guess you have to laugh so you don’t scream.
What a mess. The revised @BLaw story removes the word "anti-Semitic" from the headline, but still has factual errors + with the premise being wrong, stuff about the appointment raising more questions about vetting makes no sense. https://t.co/dbkfuL4W62
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) September 5, 2019
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