Bloomberg Law journalist Ben Penn eagerly reported this morning that an adviser to President Trump had resigned “after anti-Semitic Facebook posts” from 2016 “surfaced”:

A recently appointed Trump Labor Department official with a history of advancing controversial conservative and faith-based causes in court has resigned after revelations that he wrote a 2016 Facebook post suggesting the Jewish-controlled media “protects their own.”

Four hours after Bloomberg Law requested comment from the White House and DOL about Leif Olson’s social media post, the department said he has resigned, without elaboration.

Olson, 43, started at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division Aug. 12 as a senior policy adviser, after being cleared for the job by the White House.

[…]

Olson, an unsuccessful GOP candidate in 2012 for a Texas district court judgeship, fired off a series of late-night posts on his personal Facebook page three years ago that started as a sarcastic quip about former House Speaker Paul Ryan’s blowout primary victory. They then devolved into an exchange referencing two anti-Semitic tropes: that Jews control the media and that they look out for members of their own faith.

This is the latest in a series of mishaps under the Trump administration personnel vetting system. What makes this one remarkable is that Olson's Facebook page was public to his non-friends. Any cursory screening of his social media accounts could've uncovered the anti-Semitism.

— Ben Penn (@benjaminpenn) September 3, 2019

Here’s the problem with Penn’s “reporting.” It’s clear by looking at what Olson wrote that he was being sarcastic. Here are the comments Penn labeled as “anti-Semitic”:

This appears to be the most obvious sarcastic joke in the history of sarcastic jokes.

Calling it an "Anti-Semitic Facebook Post" in the headline is thus EXTREMELY disingenuous.

People like you are why Americans don't trust the media. pic.twitter.com/6v2EbTUDGH

— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) September 3, 2019

Philip Klein at the DC Examiner explains:

In reality, the Facebook post in question was the opposite of anti-Semitic. It was a clearly sarcastic post from 2016 about Paul Ryan crushing alt-right challenger Paul Nehlen. If the over-the-top language isn’t a tip off, it’s a fairly dead giveaway that Olson refers to Ryan having “suffered a massive, historic, emasculating 70-point victory.”

When one of the commenters suggests Ryan must be a “neocon” and a Jew, Olson, clearly joking, responded, “It must be true because I’ve never heard the Lamestream Media report it, and you know they protect their own.”

Penn’s characterization was so over-the-top wrong that even liberal Jonathan Chait called him out over the false report:

"suffered a massive, historic, 70-point victory" is obvious — I think undeniable — sarcasm. The standpoint of the post is a defense of Ryan and mockery of Nehlen.

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 3, 2019

I'm not endorsing Olson or his policies, and I'm sure he has all kinds of objectionable beliefs. But firing him as an anti-Semite over this post strikes me as terribly unfair.

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 3, 2019

Sadly, Penn is 100% unapologetic about the results of his erroneous reporting, and is now pretending that he is the true victim in all of this:

https://twitter.com/benjaminpenn/status/1168888701939851269

https://twitter.com/benjaminpenn/status/1168879205272215553

Olson’s friend Ted Frank, who is Jewish, ripped Penn’s reporting and correctly pointed out that he had effectively gotten a man who had just moved to DC with his family fired for no reason other than Orange Man Bad:

He resigned over reporters lying that a sarcastic joke is evidence of anti-Semitism in order to damage his boss. Penn gets clicks and a good man who just moved his family from Texas to engage in public service has his life disrupted.

— (((tedfrank))) (@tedfrank) September 3, 2019

Should Olson and the DOL/White House have fought back against this false charge? Absolutely. Especially considering how, under the Stelter Standard, so-called “objective” journalists are feeling more free to unequivocally characterize statements as “racist” or “anti-Semitic” rather than using qualifiers like “some view as anti-Semitic” or “some say are racist”, the latter of which allows readers to decide what to think about any allegedly offensive statements.

For anyone out there who still after all this time doesn’t understand why conservatives and Republicans have such negative views about the mainstream press, you can stop wondering now.

Related –>> DNC-MSM: HOW DARE YOU SEARCH THROUGH OUR OLD TWEETS. ALSO DNC-MSM: Shameful: Trump Labor appointee forced to resign after Bloomberg portrays sarcastic 2016 Facebook post as anti-Semitic.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –