Did The New York Times Publish "Fake News" On Faithless Elector?

For a media so consumed with “Fake News“, they’ve done a horrible job of spotting it themselves. The New York Times ran a widely heralded editorial from an elector in Texas, who swore he wouldn’t cast his vote for Trump. In an effort to build his credibility, Chris Supran, also wrote about his work on 9/11 as a first responder in New York City. Problem is… there is no record of this “faithless elector” to be found.

Advertisement

Some solid reporting by WFAA on this one.

Suprun, a Dallas resident for more than a decade, even used his résumé to establish credibility in the Times piece, writing in the second paragraph: “Fifteen years ago, as a firefighter, I was part of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks against our nation.”

He has founded a nonprofit called Never Forget and state records show he is a licensed paramedic — but much of the rest of résumé, publicly available on LinkedIn, is questionable.
In addition, on at least two occasions over the last couple years at crowded Major League Baseball games, Suprun has been introduced as a 9/11 veteran before throwing out first pitches.
“He claimed to be a first responder with the Manassas Park [Virginia] Fire Department on September 11, 2001 and personally told us stories ‘I was fighting fire that day at the Pentagon.’ No, I was on a medic unit that day at the Pentagon and you make a phone call to Manassas Park and you find out that he wasn’t even employed there until October 2001,” said a first responder who knows Suprun and only agreed to speak about him if his identity was concealed.
The City of Manassas Park confirmed to WFAA that it hired Suprun on October 10, 2001, one month after the 9/11 attacks.
The fire chief there added that his department never even responded to the Pentagon or any of the 9/11 sites.
“It’s no different than stolen valor for the military; dressing up and saying ‘Hey, I earned a Purple Heart’ when you weren’t even in combat.’ There’s a big difference between shopping at Old Navy and being a Navy SEAL,” said the first responder who knows him.

Advertisement

Read the whole sorted story.

It turns out the guy may have embellished quite a bit on his resume according to the article. Yet the Media once again ran with the story as fact without checking, because it fit their narrative. That’s where we are. Tell me again about how Facebook is going to save us from “Fake News”.

The media has been so anxious to find a way to delegitimize Donald Trump’s win and his upcoming Presidency that they’re blind to anything that could dissuade them from their fantasies of a “Do Over”. There is no mulligan on the Presidential election, you’d think they know this by now. This has not stopped the Media from publishing stories of hoaxed hate crimes, hacking, countless explainers about how stupid voters are and now this bogus background on their token “Faithless Elector”. Is it any wonder the American public hates the Media?

Yes. We do have a problem with Fake News in this country, and we have no one to blame but Journalists.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos