Are accuracy and context not taught at journalism schools today?
Washington Post writer Daniel Drezner falsely accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of calling illegal immigrants “filth.” And, Vox writer Matthew Yglesias tweeted that Sessions was talking about Latin-American immigrants.
Here is the actual transcript of the remarks prepared for Sessions:
“Let’s stop here for a minute. When we talk about MS-13 and other cartels, what do we mean? We mean criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones, that rape and kill innocent citizens and who profit by smuggling poison and other human beings across our borders. Depravity and violence are their calling cards, including brutal machete attacks and beheadings.”
“It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.”
Nowhere in those prepared remarks does Sessions call immigrants or anyone else “filth.” How dare he actually want to put an end to all of those horrible, criminal activities?
To add insult to injury for some overeager journos, the line that was so bothersome was in his prepared remarks but not actually spoken by Sessions, according to Buzzfeed’s Adrian Carrasquillo.
Drezner did return to apologize for having too quick of a trigger, so kudos to him, even though the damage has already been done. Still no apology or correction from Yglesias. Better luck next time, lamestreams.