The New York Times’ supposed scoop this week suggesting a podiatrist helped President Trump dodge the Vietnam draft is based entirely on the say-so of sources who identify as anti-Trump Democrats. Worse still, the Times failed to verify the story. Worst of all is the fact that the paper buries all of this information deep, deep down in a report that was somehow deemed ready for publication.
But other than all of that, it’s a solid bit of news journalism!
“In the fall of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam,” reads the opening lines to the 1,500-plus-word report. “For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about, and who made the diagnosis, have remained a mystery, with Mr. Trump himself saying during the presidential campaign that he could not recall who had signed off on the medical documentation.”
“Now a possible explanation has emerged about the documentation. It involves a foot doctor in Queens who rented his office from Mr. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, and a suggestion that the diagnosis was granted as a courtesy to the elder Mr. Trump,” adds the report, titled “Did a Queens Podiatrist Help Donald Trump Avoid Vietnam?”
Details of how the president may have dodged the draft come primarily from Elysa Braunstein and Sharon Kessel, daughters of the podiatrist in question, the late Larry Braunstein. If true, this would be a big story. The Times certainly seemed to think so. It placed the report on the front page of its Dec. 25 print edition.
The problem here is that there’s nothing to the story. It’s nearly 2,000 words long and there’s nothing to prove Braunstein helped Trump get out of serving in the Vietnam War. The Times itself concedes this point in the ninth paragraph, where it reports, “No paper evidence has been found to help corroborate the version of events described by the Braunstein family, who also suggested there was some involvement by a second podiatrist, Dr. Manny Weinstein.”
As it turns out, Weinstein is also dead, leaving the readers to depend entirely on the say-so of Braunstein’s daughters. Speaking of Braunstein’s daughters, the Times waits an unbelievable 30 paragraphs before dropping the following important information on its readers: “[Braunstein was] a lifelong Democrat who had served in the Navy during World War II, grew tired of Donald Trump as he became a fixture in the tabloid gossip pages and a reality television star, she said. The daughters, both Democrats, say they are not fans of Mr. Trump.”
It’s good that the Times concedes its attempt to verify their story came up empty. It’s also good that the paper discloses its sources are anti-Trump Democrats. But it couldn’t think to move that information higher up in the report?
Moral of the story: If you see a question mark in a news headline, chances are high the story is garbage. The Times’ supposed scoop this week alleging a podiatrist did Trump a huge favor during the Vietnam draft is no exception.
