Rupert Murdoch v. Journalism
Further evidence for my friend Ken’s dictum that the New York Post is a social menace, not a newspaper:
The New York Post reporter whose byline was attached to a false story that kicked off a days-long right-wing media outrage cycle has quit.
“Today I handed in my resignation to my editors at the New York Post,” reporter Laura Italiano posted to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon. “The Kamala Harris story—an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against—was my breaking point. It’s been a privilege to cover the City of New York for its liveliest, wittiest tabloid—a paper filled with reporters and editors I admire deeply and hold as friends. I’m sad to leave.”
[…]
Last week, the Post published a story claiming federal officials were distributing Vice President Kamala Harris’ book Superheroes Are Everywhere “in welcome kits” to migrant children held in a temporary immigration facility at the Long Beach convention center in Southern California.
The report, which appeared to be based on a single photograph spotted at the facility, was parroted in multiple segments on Fox News and blew up across conservative media. One reporter from Fox even posed a question about the book to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki during a press briefing last week.
But within days, the story collapsed.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post published a fact-check citing a Long Beach city spokesperson who said the facility only had a single copy of the book, which had been donated as part of a book and toy drive for migrant children.
I’m sure that Hunter Biden story no Post reporter was willing to put their byline on will totally hold up, though.