What’s particularly amazing is that [Bloomberg reporter Ben] Penn, the reporter on the story, is showing no remorse, defending his article as merely having asked questions to the department about it. But he is clearly still stating as a matter of fact that Olson was engaging in anti-Semitism, writing, “This is the latest in a series of mishaps under the Trump administration personnel vetting system. What makes this one remarkable is that Olson’s Facebook page was public to his nonfriends. Any cursory screening of his social media accounts could’ve uncovered the anti-Semitism.”
This is a shameful episode in media bias, no doubt, but the Trump administration shares some of the blame here too. For all of Trump’s attacks on the media and tendency to be unapologetic about his own remarks, [Leif] Olson was largely hung out to dry here. They could have stood by him, fought back by saying that it was clearly sarcastic. Instead, they let somebody be smeared and lose his job and have his life disrupted based on a sick lie.
Read the whole thing, and note that even lefties such as Jonathan Chait and never-Trumpers like John Podhoretz are attacking Penn.
h/t ED