A Washington Post reporter who posted a made-up quote from Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman is trying to explain himself, but he’s only making things worse.
The quote from the WaPo report looked surprisingly coherent. There were words were missing and the syntax was just fine. We haven’t heard that kind of clarity from Fetterman, well, forever.
Jeff Stein, a reporter for The Washington Post, gave this quote from Fetterman: “Shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we bail out your bank? Republicans seem to be more preoccupied with SNAP requirements for hungry people than protecting taxpayers who have to bail out these banks.”
But this is actually what Fetterman said: “Shouldn’t you have some kind of working required suu after we sail your bank billions of your bank? Because you seem we were preoccupied when then SNAP requirements for works for hungry people but not about pro, protecting the tax, tax papers you know that will bail them out of whatever does about a bank to crash it.”
Stein eventually deleted his tweet with the fake quote, and on Wednesday, a day later, he finally offered some explanation of what went wrong. According to the reporter, the quote came from John Fetterman’s office.
“Yesterday I tweeted this quote, provided to me by the Senator’s office, without checking it against the video. That was my fault. Though it captured his meaning, I deleted the tweet since some of the words in the quote were inaccurate.”
There are at least two really bad things about this explanation. The first is why is a WaPo reporter getting quotes for a senator’s office? And then, how could he not do his due dillegence? It’s unforgivable.
The second problem is why is a US senator’s office is out there making up quotes and giving them to the media without any disclaimer?
Both of these are major issues!
Yesterday I tweeted this quote, provided to me by the Senator’s office, without checking it against the video. That was my fault. Though it captured his meaning, I deleted the tweet since some of the words in the quote were inaccurate pic.twitter.com/jkDYYr2EU2
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) May 17, 2023
