One Way or the Other

In response to the New York Times’s publishing of an accusation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh which, apparently, has no confirming evidence or testimony, Washington Post columnist writes:

The story, since modified to include crucial information, was an adapted excerpt from a book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,” written by two Times staff writers, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly. In it, the authors reported allegations by a Yale classmate that Kavanaugh was at a “drunken dorm party” where “friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student.”

Setting aside the logistics of such a feat, more eye-popping was the omission from the original Times piece that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed for the book — and, according to friends, doesn’t remember any such incident .

Such an oversight is inexcusable.

The Times added these details to the story after they were flagged by the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, who had an advance copy of the book. The Times writers, who said the details had been in the excerpt’s initial draft, made media rounds Monday and Tuesday to explain the omission, and essentially blamed editors, who, they said, “in the haste” of trying to close out production, had deleted the reference.

The facts that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed by the authors, and apparently told friends that she doesn’t recall any such incident, amount to the very definition of a non-story. For the record, The Post learned of the accusation last year but declined to publish it because the alleged witnesses weren’t identified and the woman said to be involved refused to comment.

Indeed, the authors’ only sources for the claim were two unnamed officials who spoke to Washington attorney Max Stier, who last year apparently told the FBI and various senators that he witnessed the alleged incident. But Stier refused to talk to the Times writers himself.

Some Democratic contenders for the presidency immediately called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment. They include Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Tex.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Sens. Warren and Harris should be ashamed of themselves. They are attorneys and officers of the court and as such have responsibilities that transcend those of politics which they have violated by joining in the scrum. That is what being a professional means.

In the United Kingdom it is a commonplace for newspapers to be aligned with one political party or another but in the UK they have libel laws which would have rendered the New York Times a target for a likely successful libel suit. We either need a non-partisan press or libel laws suitable to our present reality.