MEDIA LOSER: Sean Davis The Federalist CEO Sean Davis baselessly accused Slate reporter Mark Joseph Stern of being the Supreme Court leaker in a tweet Wednesday. "Given that we're a 100+ days since the Dobbs leak, with zero resolution, I think we'd all like to know how a left-wing blogger at Slate is getting leaked SCOTUS documents before the [sic] appear on the SCOTUS website," wrote Davis. It all started with a tweet from reporter Nicole Russell, who replied to a tweet Stern had posted about a new case on the court's docket to ask how he had gotten the information so quickly. Stern's not-so-secret trick was subscribing to the court's email list for reporters. Not a conspiracy. Not a leak. Former NRSC comms guy Matt Whitlock tweeted a screenshot and wrote, “I think we’d all like to know how liberal reporters like [Stern] are getting news out of the Supreme Court before it’s public.” The silly rumor spread through right-wing Twitter, amplified by Davis sharing it with his more than 300K followers and eventually reaching Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who retweeted the accusation. Repeated attempts to get these pundits to delete their baseless allegations against Stern were ignored. Consider today's column a dishonorable mention for Whitlock, Hawley, and everyone else who shared the ridiculous accusations, but we're granting the big "L" to Davis because as CEO of a media outlet, he should know better. Stern blasted his accusers in a statement to Mediaite for "promoting a verifiably false allegation against me, despite their knowledge that it is a defamatory lie," he said, calling them "nasty, deceitful, possibly psychotic bullies." |