Civics: “The Cowardice of Modern Journalism”
Baron spends a good part of Collision of Power writing about the Kavanaugh nomination. He mentions me when he cites a letter that Blasey Ford had written saying that Kavanaugh “with the assistance of a friend, Mark G. Judge,” had been involved in her assault.
Had Baron read my book or any of the many columns I’ve written about the ordeal, he would know that even something as small as Ford referring to me as “Mark G. Judge” is a tell. Mark G. Judge was a byline I used when I was a younger journalist. Ford’s casual use of it in that letter suggests that someone was doing opposition research about me and Brett, not referring to someone she actually knew. It’s a small detail, maybe lost in the fact that Ford could not remember the “when” or the “where” of the alleged attack, but it is something Woodward and Bernstein would have noticed.
In my book The Devil’s Triangle, I reveal the opposition researchers Ford was working with, how the idea that she was a “reluctant witness” is a lie, and take The Washington Post apart piece by piece. Baron does not have the integrity to mention a single article I have written on the subject. He does not mention my book. He does heap praise on Emma Brown, the Post reporter who broke the Blasey Ford story. Baron writes: “The Post’s reporter, Emma Brown, had focused single-mindedly on getting the facts right and checking out Ford’s account as best she could under the circumstances at the time.”
Wrong. In The Washington Post piece published by Brown on Sept. 16, 2018, there was also no mention of Leland Keyser. Keyser was a close friend of Ford’s, who Ford claimed was present at the party where the alleged assault took place. Brown omitted Keyser from her story. Kimberly Strassel at The Wall Street Journalnoticed this and asked: “Why is there no mention of Leland Keyser in the official Post piece? Why didn’t Postreporter Emma Brown mention Keyser, who according to Ford was at the party in question?”
On Sept. 22, almost a week later, The Washington Postanswered. From Fox News :
