When the New York Times released an article this weekend detailing another allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, they forgot to mention one key fact: the alleged victim could not recall whether the event even happened.
The piece documented a third allegation, made by Deborah Ramirez, of Kavanaugh committing sexual misconduct during his college years. The New York Times later added an editor’s note to the bottom of the story, which was titled ‘Brett Kavanaugh Fit In With the Privileged Kids. She Did Not.”
“An earlier version of this article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, did not include one element of the bok’s account regarding an assertion by a Yale classmate,” the editor’s note said. “The book reports that the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say she does not recall the incident.”
It was so bad that even CNN pointed out the “high-profile blunders,” which they say began in 2016 following James Bennett’s appointment as editor of the New York Times’ opinion section.
Though the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College teaches students ethical journalism, we fail at times, too. We misspell names. We give incorrect titles. We might get a number wrong here or there. And when we make these mistakes, we apologize ad, if necessary, run a correction to the article. To the best of our abilities, we convey to the readers both the correct information, as well as our sincere apologies for misinforming them.
But the New York Times didn’t make a mistake. The outlet intentionally uses its platform to misinform the public, to delegitimize a Supreme Court justice with unsubstantiated allegations, and to rewrite history with a sour, leftist twist.
The job of media is to tell the truth. And the New York Times intentionally did not tell the truth.
