A Bloomberg reporter Ben Penn misreported a Trump official’s sarcastic post. The official, Leif Olson was attacking white supremacist Paul Nehlen but Penn mischaracterized it as a racist remark. He’s not sorry, he isn’t apologizing, and Bloomberg stands behind him and the article.
THE STORY
On Tuesday, Bloomberg News, published a report titled, “Trump Labor Aide Quits After Anti-Semitic Facebook Posts Surface.”
The report by Ben Penn claims conservative attorney Leif Olson trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes on his Facebook page in 2016. But then one reads what Olson wrote that year, and it becomes obvious the Bloomberg News article lied. Olson’s quote was sardonic — clearly.
Olson was obviously mocking Nehlen’s crushing defeat for the Senate and all of the far-right, anti-Ryan craziness that was taking place then. His Facebook post was a sarcastic joke.
The post in question was from 2016 and just happened to pop up. It was about Paul Ryan crushing alt-right challenger Paul Nehlen. Olson used over-the-top language and referred to Ryan as having “suffered a massive, historic, emasculating 70-point victory.”
When one of the commenters suggested Ryan must be a “neocon” and a Jew, Olson, jokingly, responded, “It must be true because I’ve never heard the Lamestream Media report it, and you know they protect their own.”
Who would take that seriously?
-
The Importance of Prayer: How a Christian Gold Company Stands Out by Defending Americans’ Retirement
Bloomberg editors okayed the article Penn then wrote about Olson as an anti-Semite, to burn him obviously. Olson’s on a presidential committee in charge of deregulation.
Read more here and read Penn’s garbage article here. He also tweeted the lie.
HIS COLLEAGUE CALLED HIM OUT AS A “MISERABLE PRICK”
Penn was angry that a colleague, John Podhoretz called him out and pretended he did nothing wrong. Penn also shared the private message from Podhoretz. It actually made Penn look bad. Penn might really be stupid.
My fellow journalist @jpodhoretz is DMing me that I’m a “miserable prick” and a “repugnant child.” All over this piece: https://t.co/68kDvaFn0h pic.twitter.com/VJGLaD9vTZ
— Ben Penn (@benjaminpenn) September 3, 2019
Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist said Penn has a history of this kind of thing against people who support religious liberty.
DC Examiner reporter added:
“It was sarcastic criticism of the alt-right’s conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic positions,” Olson said in an interview.
Uhhhhh this sounds 100% believable. He was mocking Paul Nehlen, anti-Semites, and the Alt-Right. If this is all the evidence you have, then big yikes dude. https://t.co/H1ByJwHggi pic.twitter.com/lpeLOPisIE
It was obvious sarcasm:
The Bloomberg Law story on Leif Olson appears to be crumbling around it. Jake Hyman of the ADL is quoted in the story calling Olson’s FB post “clearly anti-Semitic.” An ADL spox sends this statement: pic.twitter.com/03o5oFgCRp
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 3, 2019
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) September 3, 2019
OLSON RESIGNED AND PIG PENN GLOATED
After his outrageous article that led to Olson resigning almost immediately from a White House business committee, Penn gloated that they were “down one adviser.” That suggests it was deliberate and he’s proud about it.
Lost in all of this is that Olson was part of a team of political appointees tasked with the heavy lift of drafting wage-hour regulations that are high priorities for Trump White House, business community. They’re now down one adviser. https://t.co/PZbIScDHqe
— Ben Penn (@benjaminpenn) September 3, 2019
BLOOMBERG STANDS BEHIND PENN AND THE SLIMING OF MR. OLSON
Bloomberg stands behind the lying reporter and his bogus article. Of course, they do. They okayed it in the first place and it cost the White House an employee involved in deregulation. This was the goal undoubtedly and they don’t care if they had to lie to do it.
This signals that Bloomberg isn’t considering changes to a story that slimes Olson with “anti-Semitic Facebook posts” that are not anti-Semitic.
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 3, 2019
