Mark Twain never actually wrote “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” but his misattributed aphorism has plenty of application to modern journalism.
President Trump once again made history with his pick of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court last night. Kavanaugh is a well-respected judge who will likely be confirmed by the Senate within the next few months. (RELATED: Five Things You Need to Know About Trump’s SCOTUS Pick.)
The radical Left has other plans, of course. Already, many Democrats are openly wishing for the nomination to fail. And some are even getting violent about it. (RELATED: Fox News Host Forced to Cancel Live SCOTUS Broadcast Due to Leftist Protesters.)
Then there are some who are being subversive about it, spreading false rumors that President Trump and Anthony Kennedy, the departing Supreme Court justice whom Trump is replacing, were in cahoots about naming Kavanaugh to the bench.
NBC Capitol Hill reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell was the first the spread the rumor, posting a bit of hearsay she heard that Kennedy had negotiated for months with Trump for Kavanaugh to be named as his replacement:
That’s some good journamalism there pic.twitter.com/PZ6coupA9G
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 10, 2018
The rumor spread like brush fire:
Source familiar tells NBC that Justice Kennedy had been in negotiations with the Trump team for months over Kennedy’s replacement. Once Kennedy received assurances that it would be Kavanaugh (his former law clerk) Kennedy felt comfortable retiring – @LACaldwellDC & @frankthorp
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) July 10, 2018
After admitting to having no proof of her assertion other than one unnamed source, she finally apologized for spreading the rumor, and deleted the original tweet:
I’ve deleted this tweet because it incorrectly implies a transactional nature in Kennedy’s replacement. I am told by a source who was not directly part of the talks that Kennedy provided Pres. Trump/ WH a list of acceptable replacements. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/ptxJmrbH9S
— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) July 10, 2018
That didn’t stop other journalists from jumping all over the story, however:
Well done NBC pic.twitter.com/iq3PQZJAj6
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 10, 2018
Notice how this was done. First, a journalist floats a kind of trial balloon, suggesting something is really citing an unnamed, unverified source. Then speculation is used to bolster the claim without any actual facts. At last, a correction is used, long after the rumor has become a news item by itself.
The story that Justice Kennedy negotiated for months and retired only when he had an agreement that the President would nominate Kavanaugh as his replacement is almost certainly false.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) July 10, 2018
This is a new low for the media. Caldwell should be held accountable for spreading a vicious rumor that had no bearing on the truth.
