I don’t think I have ever advocated for the firing of a journalist.
But Bloomberg Law’s Ben Penn should not be anywhere near a newsroom, as documents published Thursday night make abundantly clear.
In September, Penn authored a report accusing Trump Labor Department appointee and conservative attorney Leif Olson of publishing “anti-Semitic” posts on Facebook.
This was false. The supposedly “anti-Semitic” messages were written explicitly in mockery of actual anti-Semites, as anyone with even half a brain could tell. But Olson, presumably under pressure from his superiors, resigned anyway from his position as a senior policy adviser for the Wage and Hour Division. Luckily, after things calmed down and cooler minds realized that Bloomberg Law and Penn had smeared an innocent man, Olson was reinstated by acting Secretary Patrick Pizzella.
Throughout this entire episode, Penn and his editors maintained that their reporting was accurate and fair, as evidenced by Olson’s sudden resignation. Of course, even that fallacious defense fell apart after Olson was reinstated.
The worst of this, however, is that Penn maintained also that he merely asked questions and that he operated both impartially and professionally.
“To Leif Olson’s friends & others who take issue with this reporting, I sent a screenshot of a public FB post to DOL, seeking comment. 4 hours later I received this response: ‘Today, the Department of Labor accepted the resignation of Leif Olson effective immediately,'” the reporter said in a Sept. 3 tweet.
This is not true, as FOIA’d emails between Penn and the Labor Department show. The emails, which were obtained by Olson’s friend and fellow attorney Ted Frank, reveal a clear and focused effort from Penn to smear a conservative Trump appointee as an anti-Semite.
? ? ?@blawrefused to answer my questions about their abusive journalism fail on the LeifOlson story, so we FOIA’ed Penn’s emails to DOL to see how it happened. As youcan see, this was a total hit job, @benjaminPenntruncated & mischaracterized the Facebook posts. pic.twitter.com/CzTsMKWUBN
—tedfrank (@tedfrank) October3, 2019
First, for reference, here is what Olson wrote in 2016 in mockery of anti-Semite Paul Nehlen and his failed attempt to unseat Speaker Paul Ryan:
The guy just suffered a massive, historic, emasculating 70-point victory. Let’s see him and his Georgetown cocktail-party puppetmasters try to walk that one off.
Olson then parried another social media user’s suggestion that Ryan was a neocon, stating facetiously that Ryan must be Jewish, as evidenced by the media’s failure to report that he is Jewish.
Yet here is how Penn framed his inquires to the Labor Department (note that everything said in the below comes from the baseline that Olson is indeed guilty of trafficking in anti-Semitism):
– “If DOL was previously aware of it, did this post raise any flags inside the administration about whether he is fit for government service?
– “Does the Labor Department find comments that are disparaging to Jews acceptable for a senior appointee?”
– “Olson is on a team at WHD responsible for writing some top priority regulations — will he remain in this or any other role at DOL?”
And here’s the telling detail the FOIA revealed: The screenshots of Olson’s Facebook posts that Penn provided to Labor Department officials were truncated in such a way as to omit the most obvious signs that the conservative attorney was being facetious.
It is clear Penn was not merely asking questions. It is clear he was looking to collect a scalp, which makes his playing innocent as Olson’s resignation unfolded all the more odious.
This was not an act of journalism. It was a hit job. It’s hard to believe Penn didn’t know what he was doing, which is why he should not be allowed anywhere near a newsroom. It is too great and dangerous a power to be abused by partisan activists.
