Breitbart News has been working overtime in the wake of four women’s accusations that Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in the 1970s with teenage girls as young as 14.
Over the weekend, news emerged that the website had dispatched two veteran reporters to Alabama in an attempt to discredit the Republican candidate’s accusers and help rescue his foundering campaign.
Moore is a favored candidate of Breitbart chief Steve Bannon and the website has placed a lot of chips on his winning the special election next month to fill the seat left vacant by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
But those effort have drawn fire. “EXCLUSIVE,” blared one breathless headline, “Mother of Roy Moore Accuser: Washington Post Reporters Convinced My Daughter to Go Public.”
Many journalists, however, were quick to point out that there was nothing remotely out of place with convincing a source to come forward and that accuser Leigh Corfman’s reluctance had been noted in the original Washington Post story.
“It’s called journalism,” Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty wrote. “Breitbart might want to try it some time.”
EXCLUSIVE pic.twitter.com/3UnflS6ps9
— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 12, 2017
It's called journalism. Breitbart might want to try it some time — pic.twitter.com/m8x7gTLHUv
— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) November 12, 2017
Breitbart’s daily appallingness level is very high, but it’s really pushing it this weekend. https://t.co/CgxdgiM9aG
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 13, 2017
Those Breitbart doofuses went to Alabama so they could discredit the Washington Post’s Roy Moore story but they’re literally confirming it pic.twitter.com/7MRydIK3NW
— Haley Byrd Wilt (@byrdinator) November 13, 2017
Breitbart should have just credited the Post for its big revelation. This how-they-got-the-story detail was right in the original story. pic.twitter.com/8MVCbfUn52
— Amy Argetsinger (@AmyArgetsinger) November 13, 2017
This is literally the most hilarious "scoop" of the year. The Washington Post conducts exceptional, entirely above-board journalism and the very practice is so foreign and incomprehensible to Breitbart that they imagine it to be a scandal. https://t.co/rFPCM2GD7P https://t.co/W2elrCqCUI
— Christopher Orr (@OrrChris) November 13, 2017
The Washington Post conducts journalism and Breitbart is ALL OVER this breaking story. pic.twitter.com/E0o0RiTJUe
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 13, 2017