The Spectacle Blog
A key element of the Washington Post’s 5,000-word account of Mitt Romney’s alleged high-school bullying is based on a second-hand account of a conversation with a dead man. Ben Shapiro of Big Journalism highlighted this crucial passage in Washington Post reporter Jason Horowitz’s article:
Sometime in the mid-1990s, David Seed noticed a familiar face at the end of a bar at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
“Hey, you’re John Lauber,” Seed recalled saying at the start of a brief conversation. Seed, also among those who witnessed the Romney-led incident, had gone on to a career as a teacher and principal. Now he had something to get off his chest.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t do more to help in the situation,” he said.
Lauber paused, then responded, “It was horrible.” He went on to explain how frightened he was during the incident, and acknowledged to Seed, “It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.”
Lauber died in 2004, according to his three sisters.
The fundamental problem with this passage is that it purports to convey exact quotes in a private conversation based entirely on the say-so of David Seed. The man who allegedly said those words – offered as evidence that he was permanently harmed by Romney – has been dead for years, and never spoke to Horowitz.
How, then, could anyone possibly verify the accuracy of the quotes? The dead man’s relatives dispute the accuracy of Horowitz’s article. Will the editors of the Washington Post hire a psychic and conduct a seance, calling forth the spirit of the dead man to verify their story?
If Horowitz gets fired for this (and one experienced news editor I spoke to today said this would be considered a firing offense in his newsroom), the epitaph on his career might well be, “John Lauber could not be reached for comment.”
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Oldefarte| 5.11.12 @ 12:00PM
Speaking of Romney and ads, check out this one and.......HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY on Sunday to all you moms out there:
http://youtu.be/mV6Dn8qMzig
JmsA| 5.11.12 @ 6:38PM
Short and to the point. Thanks, my mother enjoyed it, too.
Oldefarte| 5.12.12 @ 1:54PM
Good! Here's wishing a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of the moms out there also!!!!
Occam's Tool| 5.11.12 @ 12:13PM
The sister of Lauber denies knowing anything about the incident.
Hmmm....when are we getting the tape of the Khalidi dinner with Obama, WHICH ACTUALLY HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH NATIONAL SECURITY.
I have had several run-ins with journalists in my lifetime. They never have, in my experience: 1) gotten the story straight, or 2) behaved like human beings with a conscience.
The most moronic journalist I ran into was concerned that taking Inderal to prevent autonomic hyperarousal after a severely traumatising event (to prevent the development of PTSD---data did not pan out eventually) would cause a problem of amnesia for trauma that would lead to less than a "human experience."
When I explained to her that Inderal could not work that way and that the millions and millions of people who had taken it for hypertension, tremor, migraine headaches and performance anxiety did not report amnesia as a side effect, she had no answer.
Journalists tend to be moronic subhuman vermin, in my experience, as well as hard drinking lazy scum.
Hank| 5.11.12 @ 12:31PM
The source for all of this seems to be an attorney, Phillip Maxwell, who says he participated in the incident and considers what he and Romney did to be “assault and battery.”
Clearly, the theory here is that what someone did in high school impacts their qualification to hold office as an adult. Furthermore, every state bar requires attorneys to be of "good moral character." Finally, I would be surprised to learn that Maxwell disclosed this "assault and battery" on his application to the bar.
Therefore, it seems to me that Phillip Maxwell should be disbarred, or at least investigated by his state's character and fitness committee, for his role in what happened.
Dan Abrams | 5.11.12 @ 12:43PM
What's next? Romney's childhood membership in the He Man Woman Hater's Club?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.11.12 @ 12:45PM
Elsewhere in the WaPo:
Valhalla (AP) Reached in the warrior’s hereafter, former President and noted-Indian hater Andrew Jackson offered the following commentary of the Elizabeth Warren US Senatorial campaign in Massachusetts: “Didn’t we run off all those blasted redskins to west of the Mississippi into Indian Territory? How in tarnation is some white woman claiming she’s a Cherokee and running for Senate, when everyone knows that women, Injuns, and a black man all have no rights a white man is bound to recognize or acknowledge, and that’s what I put Taney on the Supreme Court to establish, not that I’d follow their opinion anyway.”
Comment was unavailable from the Warren campaign at the time of this story going to press.
crazy| 5.11.12 @ 12:58PM
Fire the editor. It's his job to catch the obvious flaws in crappy stories like this, isn't it?
Mike G| 5.11.12 @ 2:44PM
The media will not start checking their facts on stories like this until someone gets sued for libel. I hope Romney is man enough to take them on, but I doubt it.
jocon307 | 5.13.12 @ 9:08AM
Yes, really. I don't see how you can say the writer should be fired.
Of course, I think pretty much the entire staff of the Washington Post should be fired.
Esp. that "ombudsman" what an idiot.
Alice| 5.11.12 @ 1:12PM
Since Romney has apologised for his part in the hi-jinks, that in my opinion confirms that the act took place and Romney was indeed a part of it.
Oldefarte| 5.11.12 @ 1:23PM
Who really and truthfully GAS? Want to know what's important, try this:
http://youtu.be/mV6Dn8qMzig
Jake| 5.11.12 @ 6:13PM
Romney said he didn't remember the incident.
His apology was a generalized one for stupid things he did in high school that may have hurt someone's feelings.
MITT ROMNEY: I don't recall the incident myself, but I've seen the reports and I'm not going to argue with that. There's no question but that I did some stupid things when I was in high school, and obviously if I hurt anyone by virtue of that I would be very sorry for it and apologize for it.
glenny| 5.11.12 @ 1:56PM
Romney cut some hippy's hair back in 1965???
BFD, WaPo !
glenny
glenny| 5.11.12 @ 1:59PM
"Lauber paused, then responded, “It was horrible. ... It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.”
Yeah, thought about it for, what, 30 years?
Sure you did.
glenny
sre| 5.11.12 @ 3:04PM
Devoting 5,000 words to a high school prank from 1965? Really? Based on 27 year-old quotes from someone who died 8 years ago? That's the best you've got? I am strangely comforted.
mouell| 5.11.12 @ 9:05PM
Can't they hire Bob Woodward for the day? he was able to get quotes from a comatose CIA Director William Casey. this should be a cinch.
Dec| 5.12.12 @ 12:43AM
From exposing Watergate to THIS?
swansong| 5.12.12 @ 6:26AM
In 1970 the middle school called me about my 13 year old son who was disrupting the class again as he had several times in recent weeks before that. His teacher said she thought he just wanted to attract attention as he ambled to the pencil sharpener.
Said son was a big Monkees fan and was letting his hair grow as long as his teacher father would allow.
But I was tiring of his antic behavior, so I went to
school and got him, drove straight to the barber and ordered him a buzz cut. The barber looked skeptical and said "Is that what he wants?" I said, "We aren't talking about what he wants. Cut it."
As my subdued son got out of the chair, I said, "There, now you have a real attention-getting haircut to parade around in - and if you do, there are more where that came from.
My neighbor said, "Weren't you afraid he would run away from home?" I said it never entered my head.
I suppose today I could be charged with child abuse.
In 1936 my braids were dipped in an ink well by the boy in the desk behind me. No real motive was ever determined.
In high school, I was leaning against a car, talking to friends and a boy rolled the window down, flipped my hair inside, rolled it back up and taunted me that he was going to drive away. It was in Oklahoma City. Maybe he was 1/32 Indian and wanted to get a white scalp.
I got a haircut just day before yesterday that could have been better described as malicious mutilation - and I paid for it.
Hair is not that important. Even though there was once a musical play on the subject.
JP| 5.12.12 @ 9:44AM
Smoking Crack, if purchased from a drug dealer who crossed state lines, is a federal offsense. The President admitted to smoking crack on several occaisons as a teen. Did he disclose that info to Harvard Law? To Columbia University? Who bought the coke? Did the Bambster buy it himself? If so, where did he get the money? If not, who did he party with? Other criminals? Did he encourage other friends to smoke it? Where are those friends now? Were any lives ruined because of Obama?
If the Left wishes to play this game, I think we should join-in. Perhaps a SuperPac can hire some investigators and find out.