How a Washington Post Writer's Attack on Bernie Sanders' Civil Rights Record Completely Backfired

[LiberalArkie]

By Adam Johnson / AlterNet February 13, 2016

One of the lamer hit jobs on Sanders by the establishment so far.

On Saturday afternoon the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart walked back a widely circulated “debunking” of a photo of Bernie Sanders from his days at the University of Chicago during the civil rights sit-ins of 1962. The original story, published Thursday, asserted with total certainty that the photo was not of Bernie Sanders but rather Bruce Rapport:

Stop sending around this photo of ‘Bernie Sanders’

But that’s not Bernie Sanders in the photo. It is Bruce Rappaport.

Classmates of the two men started raising concerns about the discrepancy last year. According to Time, four University of Chicago alumni told the magazine in November that they believed the man to be Rappaport, also a student activist, who died in 2006. At the time of the story, the photo was still captioned as Bernie Sanders in the University of Chicago’s photo archive. But the picture’s caption has since been changed.

Snip

http://www.alternet.org/media/how-washington-post-writers-attack-bernies-civil-rights-record-completely-backfired

[DirkGently]

1. Smirking jackass should resign from WaPo's editorial board.

Not only did he roll out the disingenuous hit piece, which had no substance regardless of who was in the particular photo he was bleating about anyway, but he jumped up and down on it, going to town with Chris Matthews on MSNBC and tweeting about it 30+ times.

His "retraction" amounts to more dishonest garbage, pretending there was some great mystery that has only recently been solved, when the fact is he was screeching about nothing to begin with, given there was never any dispute Sanders was at the event in question. Yet he smarmily demanded that people "Stop sending around this photo of 'Bernie Sanders' " which he said was being done to

"imply that he was in the trenches fighting for the rights of African Americans when rival Hillary Clinton was a Republican-supporting “Goldwater Girl.”

Sanders WAS in the trenches fighting when Clinton was a Goldwater Girl. However much it matters, it is the truth. So it was really the truth of THAT Capehart was trying to undermine so smugly and gleefully.

On top of all of that, when he was sputtering about with Chris Matthews, he frantically worked to squeeze in the idea that there is a new "meme" that Sanders doesn't talk about his Jewish heritage enough. More disingenuous slime, trying to make an issue of Sanders' religious background one way or the other.

This is the kind of garbage that made our household's decision to drop Hillary and support Obama in 2008. Then it was the attempt to count the Michigan primary after Clinton pledged not to campaign there, and Ferraro's racist comments to the effect that Obama was only succeeding as he was because of his skin color.

This is smaller issue, but the savagery and dishonesty and win-by-any-means necessary attitude is the same. We may never know if someone in the campaign explicitly asked Capehart and Time to run with it, but it sure smells familiar.

It smells like 2008.

[Dragonfli]

2. One interesting thing about Chris Mathews and Jonathan Capehart double teaming against Bernie

Is that by pure coincidence Capehart's and Tweety's significant others Are both Directly involved in Hillary Clinton's Campaign. Capehart's works directly for her and Tweety's is a supporter and fundraiser for Hillary who is also running for office using Clinton's donors and blessing to do so.

So, they are not exactly to be expected to behave any other way. They are acting in the best interests of their personal lives and not as "reporter" or "journalists"

[Ino]

5. His "retraction" does not say the issue has been solved...

He strongly implies that OF COURSE Rappaport's ex-wife and his roommate are to be believed over anyone else.
https://twitter.com/CapehartJ/status/698645182108057600
"A woman who his wife AND his roommate who is IN the picture...but whatever."

Capehart will never back down. It's unconscionable that he's not been fired.

[DirkGently]

6. Fair point. "Retraction" is

probably too generous a term for the wriggling he's doing.

[Paulie]

3. Looks like WoPo is working on the reputation as a training ground for hacks

See the correction at the bottom of this article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2016/02/09/corrupt-journalism-doesnt-pay-nor-does-abetting-it/

[Hydra]

4. Luckily most of the hits have backfired and brought Bernie's strengths to the fore

But it's not for lack of trying, and the MSM's power is still enormous and being used for ill intent.