Bloomberg Law has corrected a fake news piece that characterized a Trump appointee’s former tweets and anti-Semitic. This was obviously false, but the backlash causes the appointee to resign.
According to The Hill:
Bloomberg Law has revised a story that prompted a Labor Department official to temporarily resign after the outlet characterized Facebook posts as “anti-Semitic” that the official has said were written sarcastically.
The original article, posted under the headline “Trump Labor Aide Quits After Anti-Semitic Facebook Posts Surface,” drew pushback from figures on the left and right who said the remarks highlighted were clearly sarcastic.
“In light of the subsequent events, we removed ‘Anti-Semitic’ from the headline and clarified Olson’s reference to those tropes,” reads an addendum to the story about Labor Department official Leif Olson.
Olson, a political appointee who began serving as a senior policy adviser for the department’s Wage and Hour Division last month, had resigned Friday after the publication surfaced 2016 Facebook posts in which he and a friend joked about then-House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (Wis.) resounding primary victory over GOP challenger Paul Nehlen, an open anti-Semite.
I’m grateful to be heading back to work. Thank you, Acting Secretary @PatPizzellaDOL and @WHD_DOL Administrator Cheryl Stanton for the opportunity to continue to serve. https://t.co/l7syrnVeyo
— Leif Olson (@olsonleif) September 4, 2019
The Labor Department has announced Olson’s reinstatement.
Pundits from both sides of the aisle argued that the tweets were clearly sarcasm and not anti-Semitic.
