The Clownish Right-Wing Attempt To Discredit Roy Moore Report

The Clownish Right-Wing Attempt To Discredit Roy Moore Report

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.

 

Right-wing websites are hyping the absurd claim of a user on Twitter that The Washington Post offered to pay an Alabama woman to say that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore had engaged in sexual misconduct.

The account — which goes by the name “Doug Lewis #MAGA” and has more than 17,000 followers — previously made a nearly identical unfounded accusation involving The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times in September 2016.

The Washington Post recently reported that Leigh Corfman said Moore molested her when she was 14 years old and he was 32. Three other women told the Post that “Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s.” The report was based on conversations with more than 30 sources who knew Moore between 1977 and 1982, the time in which the reported misconduct occurred.

In an embarrassing attempt to defend Moore from these reports, some far-right websites began promoting an allegation that the Post offered to pay a woman to “accuse Roy Moore,” which Lewis sourced to an anonymous “family friend” who supposedly told his wife about it:

The Gateway Pundit, a disreputable website that frequently promotes hoaxes and employs far-right trolls, published an article based solely on Lewis’ claims with the headline “Alabama Woman Claims WaPo Reporter Offered Her $1000s to Accuse Roy Moore of Sexual Abuse!!” While Hoft noted it was “just a report at this time,” he explained it is “HUGE news if true.” Infowars.com, which is operated by leading far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, also ran with the report in an article bylined by reporter Kit Daniels that asked, “Accusations against Moore already debunked?”

The evidence-free allegation is also being promoted by fake news site TruthFeed. Another site that publishesfake news, Prntly, previously used tweets from the same account to claim voter fraud in New York.

“Doug Lewis #MAGA” has offered no evidence to support the claim. Furthermore, the account made a similar claim in 2016, writing in a tweet that “LA Times and NY Times are offering 1000.00 for any dirt on Donald J Trump.Is this what the crooked evil Democrats have sunk to??”

 

 

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

How A Stuttering President Confronts A Right-Wing Bully

Donald Trump mocks Joe Biden’s stutter,” the headlines blare, and I am confronted (again) with (more) proof that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee hates people like me.

Keep reading...Show less
Trump at Trump Tower

Former President Donald Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan

NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - Donald Trump faces a Monday deadline to post a bond to cover a $454 million civil fraud judgment or face the risk of New York state seizing some of his marquee properties.Trump, seeking to regain the presidency this year, must either pay the money out of his own pocket or post a bond while he appeals Justice Arthur Engoron's February 16 judgment against him for manipulating his net worth and his family real estate company's property values to dupe lenders and insurers.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}