Fake news: American Bar Association did not call on Senate to delay confirmation vote for another FBI investigation of Kavanaugh
The Democrat-media complex pulled off another fake news psy-op yesterday, spreading the lie that the American Bar Association has thrown its considerable institutional weight behind the Democrats' demand to delay confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Did it affect Jeff Flake's decision to flake? We'll never know, but it is a good bet that far more people heard and read the lie than will ever see any correction.
Twitchy documents the entire disgraceful episode, starting with the New York Times, which wrote:
The American Bar Association called Thursday evening for postponing a vote on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until sexual assault and misconduct allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford and others are investigated by the F.B.I.
Fake!
But the lie was spread quickly:
The American Bar Association does not make decisions like this lightly. A neutral, professional FBI investigation is our best path forward on the Kavanaugh nomination. https://t.co/3R5gbJozdf
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) September 28, 2018
Eight long hours later, the Senate Judiciary Comittee tweeted out its correction:
“The correspondence by Robert Carlson, President of the American Bar Association...was not received by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary prior to its issuance...The ABA’s rating for Judge Kavanaugh is not affected by Mr. Carlson’s letter.” pic.twitter.com/d8oYYGFcK1
— Senate Judiciary (@senjudiciary) September 28, 2018
Radical individuals with titles express personal opposition to Kavanaugh or demands for an FBI investigation, but taking them as speaking for their institutions is propagandistic. If the ABA president did not make it clear he was speaking personally, then he has misled the public. When I was in the professor business at Harvard and Columbia Universities, it was made very clear to me that whenever I took a position on a public issue, I must also include a disclaimer that the views expressed were the author's personal opinion and did not reflect the position of the university. Anyone with a title and position of responsibility at a nonprofit institution knows this. That's a group that should include the Dean of the Yale Law School. Yet, returning to the NYT piece, look at its headline and the second paragraph of the story:
The headline clearly states that Yale Law School has taken a position. But the second paragraph differs:
The dean of Yale Law School, Judge Kavanaugh's alma mater, echoed the A.B.A.'s call. "Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession," Dean Heather K. Gerken said in a statement on Friday.
Here is the linked statement:
I join the American Bar Association in calling for an additional investigation into allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh. Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession.
Dean Gerken clearly is speaking for herself, not Yale Law School. Maybe as dean she escapes the injunction for a formal disclaimer? But she has been duped and repeated the lie that the ABA has taken a position.
Google does register any correction from Dean Gerken. She owes one of her most distinguished alumni one.
As Harry Reid notoriously admitted about his false slander (on the Senate floor, where he can't be held accountable) that he "heard" that Mitt Romney didn't pay income taxes for ten years, "it worked, didn't it?"