It started out as a massive 5000-word hit piece on Mitt Romney reminiscent of what The Washington Post did to Rick Perry about a rock on his family hunting ground.
WaPo put a reporter (or more) on the case and apparently spared no effort to find something which could make a headline based on events that took place multiple decades ago. In the case of Perry, WaPo had to go back to the early 1980s, for Romney back to the mid-1960s when Romney was in high school.
The long and the short of the story was that Romney was mean in high school. Romney was supposed to enter the public consciousness as the ringleader in a Lord of the Flies remake.
The most celebrated incident involved the alleged cutting of a student’s hair. The student according to WaPo was known for “nonconformity and presumed homosexuality,” and voila, Romney is lambasted across the left-blogosphere and media as a gay basher, much as Perry was lambasted as a racist.
Put aside that nothing in their lives in the past several decades supported such conclusions, WaPo found something in the distant past based on confused or contradictory recollections and then set the narrative.
But the story is not holding up as intended:
- Washington Post Romney Hit Piece Implodes
- Washington Post Quotes the Dead to Defame Romney
- Cracks in the Washington Post story on Romney’s ‘pranks’ emerge
- Draw and STRIKE!
- Sister of Alleged Romney Bullying Victim Never Knew about the Episode
- ‘BullyGate’: What Did Jason Horowitz Know, and When Did He Know It?
- Family of alleged Romney victim angry over exploitation of story
- Washington Post Romney ‘Bullying’ Profile Contradicted By… Automobile Magazine
And biggest point of the day, perhaps the American people are just fine with the leader of the pack:
Would it be wrong of me to say “I hope WaPo fails”?
Or at least that they never make it off the island?
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Comments
The Washington Post finally being taken to task for their sins. It’s a beautiful thing. Thank you new media!
No rational person believes anything printed in WaPo. I don’t even believe their sunrise/sunset times!
No person who believes what the WaPo prints will care that their lies are exposed…
But, but, but, what’s MSNBC going to talk about now?????????
http://www.therightscoop.com/accuracy-in-media-exposes-blatant-media-bullying-on-msnbc-over-romney-prank-story/
How can any reasonable voter care about what a presidential candidate did in high school, and how can our society tolerate such biased media?
During this critical Presidential election, which periodical does political reporting you believe, a prestigious paper of record like the Washington Post, or Automobile Magazine?
Easy call.
Sadly, it’s an easy, easy call.
The one that knows more about the 911 Porsche?
Haha!
Reminds me of what Dennis Miller said of the NY Times:
“I find more factual information in the Auto Trader.”
Or in the Thrifty Nickel.
Am I busted?
Or…are you? 😉
While The Washington Post continues to lose credibility, they retain the resources necessary to launch a credible report. If we are truly fortunate, then all “journalists” will reconsider and reaffirm their voluntary conformance to a standard of professional ethics. In the meantime, we laugh, we mock, and we disparage a withering remnant of yesteryear. All the while hoping that our candidate will be properly vetted and presented for service.
Oh, and “Lord of the Lies”, excellent! There’s a double entendre in its homonymic association. Think: Progressive Corruption.
Where was Jennifer Rubin on this story?
She’s tasked with spinning the narrative to slander Republicans, and Conservatives, specifically. In other words, she/they are reloading after their initial volley failed to meet its mark. This is surely the calm before the storm. They are nothing if not resourceful and devious.
Well, this is to be expected when diverging interests compete for finitely accessible resources, control, and stature.
This is just unreal, first the Warren lies and now the obvious WaPo lies. And all of these are easily refutable with any amount of research. Is the left really getting that desperate, or do they really think that they have enough control of the mainstream media to get away with this garbage?
There is more to wealth, control, and stature than truth or even its perception. The media can serve to mitigate risk, but it does not assure success. While fundamental corruption is indeed the principal concern, we cannot ignore exceptional corruption. The former promotes and defends the latter. We should not underestimate how individuals will choose to mitigate personal risk. There is a reason why as many people as do vote Democrat.
A “Hitchhicker’s Guide to Formatting Commands On LegalInsurrection.com” may be found here.
Enjoy.
Willard needs a campaign slogan. How about: “Free trims!!”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/11/paul-begala-on-romney-once-a-bully-always-a-bully.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=exclusive_breaking_news&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bexclusive_breaking_news&utm_term=Breaking%20News%20and%20Exclusives
You wanna read a real knee-slapper…
thar tis.
Quit illuminating the left. The light is too bright and I need my shades.
Here’s a side-by-side picture of Obama and Romney when they were young:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7240/7181048642_179149f231.jpg
Because, as Begala said, it helps illuminate the man who seeks to become the most powerful person in the world.
Oh, yes. It DOES.
And, if Romney is a bully.
Barry is a druggie AND a bully to girls.
IOW, a lot like his father.
1. Obama looks like a stoner. Romney looks like a jerk.
sigh But he’s our jerk. More importantly, he isn’t Obama.
2. I’ve tried to offset your HTML inaccuracy that turned the rest of the page into boldface. My apologies in advance to all, especially to Bill, if I made things worse.
1. No effect. The system edited out my correction.
2. This seems like an appropriate time to repeat my occasional request for a comment-input screen with formatting buttons.
It’s worse than the Romney lies. These people are collaborators with communists. Accuracy in Media went to their shareholders meeting.
http://hillbuzz.org/is-washington-post-a-propaganda-arm-of-communist-regimes-76055
It’s funny. It’s almost like they can’t tell the difference between the truth and a lie, and they don’t care anyway…
As I’ve noted many times, War, the Collective HAS to immerse itself in lies.
That’s all they have, and what they choose.
I’m sure WaPo has this as a headline..
http://www.therightscoop.com/dear-washington-post-romney-also-helped-save-a-14-year-old-girl-in-1996/
A good deed does not cancel out Romney’s lies, liberalism, ruthlessness in business and political tactics. Al Capone gave to orphanages, established soup kitchens, bought fuel and heating for poor people.
You are honestly a moron. If you think allowing Obama 4 more years in office is the comparable to Romney in office, you are truly delusional and pathetic.
School yourself, boy. You think a commie, who is our President this very moment, is preferable to Romney?
Do you read anything besides Ron Paul’s racist newsletters?
You’ve lost ALL credibility with me. Not that you had any before, but you are just stupid with a capitol S.
Resist you much, but Breitbart Is Here.
Good for Mitt and Al!
Somebody is missing from this list of good deeds done by “bad” people. Why it’s ovomit, who has never done a damn thing that didn’t benefit himself. He won’t even help his own FAMILY.
The truth about Romney is far scarier than any silly hazing pranks in college. His lies, leftist liberalism, ruthless business and political tactics, thievery of tax dollars, cronyism, unconstitutional executive orders are all the model for Obama’s presidency.
Perhaps the WaPo is telling about these pranks to avoid the facts and truth about either Obama or Romney.
Yeah, and he wears weird underwear.
I’m sure that’s next from you.
Stay home. Don’t vote.
You’re too stupid to see the big picture.
You read it here first: “Ann Romney” is quadruplets! Mitt Romney is a polygamist!!
Is he a Sunni Mormon or a Shiite Mormon? My investigation is continuing.
Damn funny. Uncle won’t get it. He’s clueless.
Professor, thanks for this Friday night roundup.
The Washington Compost. Heheheh.
Look at how awful of a person Romney is! Except… we made most of it up and our sources didn’t know about it until we came to them.
Look at how Romney treated his dog Seamus… oops, Obama put in his book that he ate dog meat.
Trayvton Martin was executed in a racially motivated attack! Wait, it appears that he was the aggressor. Still racism!
Oh my! Romney said he’d let Osama bin Laden go! But.. he didn’t.
If we keep jerking their heads away from the Economy, maybe they’ll get whiplash and the neck brace will keep them facing forward, and we’ll turn their chairs so they can’t see the economy!
I prefer to call it “Wa-Poo.”
WaPo is just a bunch of Macaca.
Excellent post (as usual) but this is an awesome title.
A problem is this story was picked up by the Uk ‘s Telegraph. It was impossible t refute because the did not allow comments.
There has been no mention in the Australian papers but then again they have an actual 12/13 Federal Budget to discus.
WaPo punches below the belt
[…] Legal Insurrection: WaPo’s Lord of the Lies […]
Well, well, well… I finally beat out a rich kid, (according to the automobile article), in that I did own a car when I was sixteen and in fact actually got it when I was fourteen and drove it around the back lot until I became of driving age.
BFD! Bottom line is that this whole sordid affair is just another hack job that leads back to the White House via the mainstream media.
I’m wondering what the public’s tolerance level for sleaze will be in this campaign since most of it will be coming from the democrats…
One of the UK papers took the story down with no explanation.
One key to remember is that Maxwell, who was so disturbed about the incident and described it as “assault and battery,” gave interviews to TNR and a book author in 2007, basically portraying Romney somewhat negatively, but “happy go lucky” – and never mentioned the incident which had been so weighing on his conscience all these years. Neither did anyone else.
Another point is that the named sources are Democrats, and one worked for the Obama campaign in 2008.
And perhaps most telling: five separate individuals suddenly remember an incident from almost 50 years ago and describe it in exactly the same way? What are the odds of five eyewitnesses describing an event precisely the same even 50 minutes after it happened?
Finally, notice none of these guys made a peep about it, even though they were Democrats, when Romney was running for Governor in 2002. Not a word. Of course, Mr. Lauber was still alive then, wasn’t he? You can do your own math.
Obama ATE Romney’s DOG???
Yup, with a nice chianti and some fava beans!
WaPo can write about Mitt Romney’s high school days because those days and records are out in the open. So where are the records and transripts of our President? Sealed. Records aren’t sealed unless there’s something to hide. Forty years ago, WaPo’s Woodward and Bernstein went after Watergate, and brought down a President. Today, WaPo is but a shell of it’s former self, as is most of the MSM. Sad.
[…] Prof Jacobson […]
“Lord of the Flies remake” Rivera used this phrase.
I haven’t seen anyone else point this out: the WaPo article itself casts doubt on the witnesses’ memories. Look at the two pranks played on “venerable English teacher, Carl G. Wonnberger, nicknamed ‘the Bat’ for his diminished eyesight”: jacking up the back of his VW and gesturing him forward so he walked straight into a door.
If his vision was so bad that he could not see a door directly in front of him, how could he possibly drive? The witnesses must after almost half a century have jumbled together pranks played on different people. Hence, they may also have mixed up the details of the haircutting prank, including the names of the people involved.
Is everything still bolded? Odd how neither Romney nor Obama are all that “bold.” Of course, they have so little to be bold about.
Strange how those with so much to be humble about so often are the least humble…
Let me try this, just for the halibut: