The U.S. Department of Labor has admitted it acted too hastily in forcing a young staffer, Leif Olson, to resign over a Bloomberg Law report by Ben Penn that falsely claimed to be Olson's anti-Semitic social media remarks. They weren't.

Even Vox and Media Matters agreed the man had been railroaded by Penn. Conservative writers Philip Klein, Mollie Hemingway, Rod Dreher, Yair Rosenberg, Michael Brendan Dougherty, and Will Chamberlain blasted the mendacious report, too. 

The happy-ending tweets from the blameless Olson came last night:

I’m grateful to be heading back to work. Thank you, Acting Secretary @PatPizzellaDOL and @WHD_DOL Administrator Cheryl Stanton for the opportunity to continue to serve. https://t.co/l7syrnVeyo

— Leif Olson (@olsonleif) September 4, 2019

And to everyone who reached out, and especially to each of you who risked your own credibility and reputation to defend mine: Jo and I can never thank you enough. Each of you is a blessing, and we hope to bless you in return. Thank you, and thank you again.

— Leif Olson (@olsonleif) September 4, 2019

Which leaves a lot of players involved in this travesty with egg all over their faces.

Two players who were quick to initially condemn Olson, based on the report, quickly backtracked, not wanting to be left holding this baby: First, the Department of Labor, which according to a statement first obtained by Daily Caller's Luke Rosiak, said: "Following a thorough reexamination of the available information and upon reflection, the Department has concluded that Mr. Olson has satisfactorily explained the tone of the content of his sarcastic social media posts and will return to his position in the Wage and Hour Division." What a bunch of jackasses, to cave in like that to a spurious press report. No apology, nobody removed from responsibility, no reflection on the irony of how the Labor department, which is supposed to be concerned about worker rights, sure as heck didn't pay attention to Olson's, but O.K., at least they changed course. There was also the Anti-Defamation League, which first condemned Olson, too, but then made a U-turn and effectively said its initial condemnation was wrong, claiming they had 'accepted' Olson's 'explanation' -- as if this was something Olson 'owed' them, when they should have been reproaching themselves for jumping the gun with zero regard for facts. But as with Labor, at least they did some kind of course reversal if for nothing else to preserve their credibility.

Not the case with the original instigator of this travesty - Bloomberg Law, and its writer, Ben Penn. He defended himself and doubled down on his false reportage, going down with his burning ship.

It's obvious he couldn't care less about his credibility as a newsman, he's doubled down on his irresponsible and dishonest reporting, while his media organization has backed him. Nothing has been retracted. Now he's gone silent on the matter on Twitter, as if he hopes the whole thing will blow over. But Olson's reinstatment leaves him with egg all over his face and now he's hoping no one will notice. It's not working. Here are some choice tweets peppering him wherever he goes.

Shouldn't Ben Penn report on Leif Olson's reinstatement as part of his DOL beat? Seems weird that he wouldn't write about it at all.🤔

— pneumataster (@neontaster) September 5, 2019

Amazing— Bloomberg Law and Ben Penn are trying to just ride out the storm and never address their errors yesterday.

Refusing to even acknowledge an obvious, widely panned mistake like that makes it seem even more like it was always just intentional character assassination. https://t.co/8jZwFDcZat

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) September 4, 2019

Joy Reid: NOT FIRED

Lawrence O'Donnell: NOT FIRED

Ben Penn: NOT FIRED

Must be nice to make a massive, damaging mistake if you're a leftist in the media because there are no consequences.

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) September 3, 2019

Image credit: Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with edited Twitter screen shot with Flickr image from Insomnia Cured Here // CC BY-SA 2.0