Breitbart.com Trumpets Story Based on 2011 Weiner Sexting As If It Happened in 2013; Whisks Away Post With No Correction
Breitbart.com published a piece yesterday that announced that Anthony Weiner was sexting Lisa Weiss in March 2013, based on messages that were actually sent in 2011.
Then Breitbart.com whisked away the post with no acknowledgement of error.
The proof remains at Weasel Zippers, which quoted the now-disappeared Breitbart.com post in a post titled Carlos Danger Was Sexting With Another Woman Right Up Until He Announced His Run For NYC Mayor…
Here, Weasel Zipper quotes the Breitbart.com piece:
Via Breitbart:
On Tuesday evening, Anthony Weiner, with his wife by his side, admitted to continuing to send lewd messages to women after he resigned from Congress. He assured the public however, that the behavior was “behind him now.” According to Facebook messages from Weiner, published by RadarOnline, he was sexting with a woman in March of this year, while he was campaigning for Mayor.
When exactly did the sexting get “behind him?”
On March 16th, in an exchange with Weiner, a woman writes “Nice! Just what I’m looking for….I want to XXXX the future mayor of nyc!”
Weiner hadn’t formally announced for Mayor at that time, but had conducted polling on the race and was reportedly considering making a run. On March 16th, the date of the message, FoxNews reported that Weiner was preparing for a mayoral race.
If you go to the Breitbart.com link, this is what you find:
No correction. No acknowledgment of error.
Even though it turns out that the messages in question were actually sent in 2011.
I actually linked the Weasel Zippers post in an update to a post yesterday, attributing it to a “report.” Then I went to read more about it, and found the post upon which the claim was based had disappeared . . . and that it was a Breitbart.com piece. I decided that they probably screwed up the story, decided to whisk it away from view, and hope nobody noticed. I deleted my update within about two minutes and made two mental notes: one, to write this post, and a second to always check stories in the future to make sure they are not based on a Breitbart.com piece. And if they are, double and triple check them.
I have gotten on them before for this. I criticized them in this post for doing the same thing when they thought a Bono impersonator was Bono. The problem, I explained, was not the mistake, but failing to acknowledge it:
Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. But people carefully watch how you handle mistakes.
The right way to do it is to quickly, forthrightly, and thoroughly admit error — to move to correct the error, apologize, and explain how it happened.
The wrong way is to pretend it never happened, and to lawyer it up.
They have learned nothing. They continue to try to sweep away their errors away from public view and hope nobody notices.
Well, we did.
I would advise them to start being forthright when they make errors, but I have already tried that, and it’s falling on deaf ears.
I made a mistake, for two minutes, relying (even indirectly) on Breitbart.com without double-checking the story myself. I’ll do my best to make sure it does not happen again.