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Lee Fang Report Goes Up In Smoke

Free Beacon lights up Intercept conspiracy theory

November 12, 2019

The Intercept on Tuesday published a monster hit from Lee Fang* wafting the suggestion that the Washington Free Beacon worked arm-in-arm with the GOP opposition research group America Rising to publish an October report about Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.

The report, based on school board documents obtained by Free Beacon reporter Collin Anderson, raised questions about Warren's oft-repeated story that she was fired from Riverdale County Elementary in the mid-70s because she was pregnant. America Rising, public records show, acquired the documents independently.

New York Times reporter Reid Epstein obtained the same documents but chose not to report on them for reasons that remain unclear, as did reporters from the Huffington Post.

Fang, who has a history of possessing and distributing fake news and taking topless photos of himself while blazing the kindest nuggs, suggests in his report that America Rising provided the documents to the Free Beacon.

Despite reporting that America Rising "declined to comment," a spokeswoman for America Rising told the Free Beacon that Fang must have forgotten to contact that organization for comment. Neither did Fang seek comment from the Free Beacon prior to publishing his report.

Fang also forgot to respond to a request for comment about why he did not adhere to standard journalistic practice before publication of the bombshell report.

It's the latest in a series of botched reports from the left-wing journalist and former scribe for the now defunct ThinkProgress (RIP!), whose editors have been forced to update Fang's stories with as many as five corrections.

"In response to the request, a school official provided America Rising with the school board minutes that became the basis for the story that erupted the following month, along with emails from a Wall Street Journal reporter who had requested similar records in April," Fang puffed.

But emails show that a Riverdale Public School business administrator Jayson Gutierrez provided the documents to Anderson the morning the Beacon published its report.

"The Free Beacon did not cooperate with America Rising in any way on this story and if Fang had asked, we would have told him," said Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson.

Fang, a onetime intern for former Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D., Ohio), previously served as a writer for the left-wing magazine the Nation and a researcher at Progressive Accountability.

Lee Fang

His reporting has been consistently laced with errors. While at ThinkProgress, Fang pushed a particularly bad strain of facts to argue that a former Goldman Sachs employee working for then Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) on the House Oversight Committee changed his name to hide his past at the influential investment bank. But the staffer told Talking Points Memo that he and his sister had changed their names to honor their Transylvanian heritage and "respect the last wish of his grandfather to carry on his mother's family name."

ThinkProgress updated the story five times to correct erroneous assertions.

According to renowned medical information database WebMD, "having trouble doing normal daily things, like cooking or working" is one possible warning sign of ripping too many tubes. Calling subjects for comment is standard practice for competent professional journalists as is fact-checking.

(*) Fang is properly pronounced like "bong."

Published under: Media