There is a reason why conservatives find it deeply hypocritical for liberals to call for an end to First Amendment rights for some corporations but not others. If an oil company wants to spend money advocating against punitive taxation of their industry, it is the end of democracy as we know it. But if The Washington Post, also a corporation, wants to spend millions distributing attacks on Republican presidential candidates, that is A-OK.
The Post continued their long and well established history of shoddy attacks on Republicans today (how many stories did they do on Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s college thesis?), releasing an artfully timed hit piece on Mitt Romney about an alleged high school prank that happened almost 50 years ago. The story opens:
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
Notice how The Post never flat out accuses Romney of targeting Lauber because he was gay, they just imply it. Notice how they use quotation marks for statements purportedly made by Romney almost 50-years ago. Notice how this story was released on the web perfectly timed to coincide with President Obama’s new found support for gay marriage.
The story premiered with this denial from the Romney campaign:
This sentence has since been added:
In fact, Romney’s denial went even further. Here is the transcript from the radio interview:
ROMNEY: “I don’t remember that incident and I’ll tell you I certainly don’t believe that I, I can’t speak for other people of course, thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from my mind back in the 1960s, so that was not the case. But as to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all, but again, high school days, if I did stupid things, why I’m afraid I got to say sorry for it.”
So Romney denies remembering the specific event in question and further denies believing Lauber was gay. A denial that The Post still has not added to their story.
But The Post, was never interested in the truth to begin with. If they were, they would have put Obama under the same microscope. Obama also attended an elite private school, all be it in the late-70s. Did Obama ever pull an pranks while he was there? Did he ever experiment with any substances? The Post has done zero stories on this part of Obama’s life.
The Washington Post exists for one reason, and one reason only. And it is not to make money. It is to help elect as many Democrats as possible. They did their part today.
