The standard for what constitutes a printable story these days has taken a serious downturn.
Jane Mayer, the co-author of the already thoroughly specious story claiming that another woman was the victim of inappropriate behavior from Supreme Court justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, admitted that her corroborating witness provided only a second-hand account of the story.
Actually, she first claimed that “he remembers it (the story) clearly” before being cornered by CBS anchor John Dickerson.
“Did he see it?” Dickerson asked.
“No,” Mayer responded. “As I’ve said, he heard it from someone who was there.”
And that right there is why multiple outlets passed on the story while a two-bit operation like the New Yorker ran with it.
Where did the corroborating witness get the information from? –@JDickerson
“He remembers it from–he was in the same dorm .. and he remembers it clearly” –@JaneMayerNYer
But did he see it? –@JDickerson
“No. As I’ve said, he heard it from someone who was there.” –@JaneMayerNYer pic.twitter.com/h9dxDiPJeX
— Norah O’Donnell🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) September 24, 2018
Numerous doubts have arisen from the latest accuser’s story. Deborah Ramirez claims that while she and Kavanaugh were both students at Yale, the future Supreme Court Justice exposed himself and by virtue caused her to touch him in a sexual manner.
The proof behind Ramirez’s claim is completely non-existent.
The New York Times investigated the claim in Mayer and co-author Ronan Farrow’s story prior to publication. After interviewing “several dozen” people, they were unable to find anyone who could corroborate the accusation.
Except for that one aforementioned witness who “heard it from someone who was there.”
Jane Mayer mis-stated it on Morning Joe. It’s not that the NYTimes didn’t have the story; it’s that the NYTimes realized that there wasn’t a story
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) September 24, 2018
There’s something to be said about Mayer’s inability to articulate her reasoning for trusting an anonymous witness. An anonymous witness who heard an account from some other person that is unwilling to substantiate the claims on their own.
Reporting standards have plunged mightily in the era of Trump.
Dickerson later interviewed White House aide Kellyanne Conway who described the apparent hit job on Kavanaugh as “starting to feel like a vast left-wing conspiracy.”
Deborah Ramirez’s best friend says Ramirez never told her about this incident and “suggested that Ramirez may have been politically motivated.” pic.twitter.com/qcTMwhLGHA
— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) September 24, 2018
Mayer, it should be noted, also took aim at Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings in which Anita Hill had accused him of sexual misconduct.
In the end, Mayer, Farrow, and the mainstream media don’t need actual witnesses or solid facts to run stories anymore. Their end game here is trying to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation all in the name of saving the right to abortion.
They do the Democrats bidding – even f it means destroying an innocent man and his family.
“She (Ramirez) came forward because Senate Democrats began looking at this claim,” Farrow admitted.
A politically motivated smear if there ever was one.
