Politics

Surprise! NYT’s Embarrassing Rubio Hit Piece Came From Democratic Super PAC

Alex Griswold Media Reporter
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A reporter at the Washington Free Beacon discovered that The New York Times’ embarrassing story attacking Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio for traffic violations was almost certainly planted by a Democratic super PAC. (RELATED: Marco Rubio And His Wife Have Gotten A Bunch Of Traffic Tickets)

“Marco Rubio and His Wife Cited 17 Times for Traffic Infractions” is the headline of Friday’s Times piece, which credits three separate reporters. Missing from the headline is the important context that the candidate himself only had four violations to his name, over the span of two decades.

The Times took a lot of heat for the story from conservatives, who saw the piece as pointless and petty. But in an actual work of journalism, the Free Beacon’s Brent Scher noted that Rubio’s records weren’t pulled by the Times at all, but by Democratic opposition group American Bridge.

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The David Brock-controlled American Bridge is known for its occasionally shoddy reporting work. In another embarrassing incident in 2014, American Bridge spread a video they claimed was of Republican Senate candidate David Perdue signing a young woman’s stomach… when he was actually signing her inhaler.

There’s nothing inherently unethical about reporting opposition research, but typically reporters are upfront about their sources. By comparison, The New York Times was open about the fact that their reporting on Hillary Clinton’s shady Clinton Foundation dealings came after they were approached by conservative author Peter Schweizer.

UPDATE: The New York Times has responded to the allegations by saying it was a complete coincidence that three reporters came across Rubio’s traffic ticket information a week after American Bridge.

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