Yesterday I blogged about the latest development in Bloomberg Law’s false and misleading story about Leif Olson. Frank Bednarz and Ted Frank of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Labor for all communications with Penn. They obtained emails which showed that Penn mischaracterized Olson’s Facebook posts. At the end of my post, I wrote:
Bloomberg should add a clear disclaimer at the top of the article, stating that the organization retracts all claims. There is no reason to stand behind this story. Bloomberg has already assaulted Leif’s character; at least it can rehabilitate his Google footprint.
Today at 3:35 PM, Bloomberg Law retracted the article:
Bloomberg Law has retracted this article, published on Sept. 3. In reporting on a series of social media posts from Department of Labor official Leif Olson, we failed to meet our editorial standards for fairness and accuracy. We regret that lapse and apologize to our readers and to Mr. Olson.
Kudos to Bloomberg. This retraction should not have taken a month, but I am glad they finally reached the correct decision. This incident should counsel other reporters and editors to avoid the “surfacing social media” crusades. These sorts of articles are designed solely to destroy someone’s reputation, and not provide a balanced account of their reputation. Stop them.
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