The Associated Press (AP) is reportedly looking at a possible lawsuit after a bombshell article on GOP Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno was found to contain serious errors and contradictions. The article by Brian Slodysko suggested that Moreno had posted on the website Adult Friend Finder (AFF) to find male lovers. The story was eagerly picked up by newspapers like The Washington Post. Moreno is a Trump-backed anti-establishment candidate who is on the ballot this Tuesday in the Ohio primary.
After being pressed by conservative sites like Breitbart News, AP admitted that a claim of having “geolocation data” implicating Moreno is untrue and Moreno’s counsel has shown that an intern admitted that the posting was a prank. Moreover, the AP knew and reported on the admission from the intern but still ran the story and claim of geolocational data support. The article is being denounced as a political “hit piece” and AP has reportedly brought in a major defense attorney to handle the legal repercussions.
The story recounted how someone posted a message stating “Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling,” reads a caption on a photo-less profile under the username “nardo19672.” It further stated that
“Beyond the work email, the profile lists Moreno’s correct date of birth, while geolocation data indicates that the account was set up for use in a part of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where property records show Moreno’s parents owned a home at the time. The account’s username — nardo19672 — appears to refer to Moreno’s full first name, Bernardo, as well as the year and month of his birth in February 1967.”
In reality, an intern reportedly admitted to creating the account as a joke. Moreno’s lawyer told AP that
“16 years ago an intern at Moreno Auto created an account at AFF as a prank, which he quickly abandoned that same day. We have provided AP a copy of a signed letter from that intern, admitting to this, as well as another signed letter from a former VP of Mr. Moreno’s company, confirming this intern’s employment at the time the account in question was created…The email address in question was not Bernie’s personal email address, but rather an email address that appeared on company websites and literature and was managed by staff. Multiple people had access to it, including this intern.”
While acknowledging that objection, the AP still ran the story on purported “links” of Moreno to the site. Various people immediately objected to the claim of the geolocational evidence, including the man who reportedly created the code for the site. Adult Friend Finder founder Andrew Conru expressed shock at the reporting and posting a detailed refutation of the claim:
“I reviewed all the available information and it showed that the account had only a single visit, no activity, no profile photo, consistent with a prank or someone just checking out the site. That’s it. The AP report seeming to claim that the available data proves the account was created in Florida is inaccurate, as location information is manually entered during the signup process. In reality, there appears to be no public geolocation data tied to the account.”
He added later:
“Ah, just noticed what people are calling geolocation. In 2008, when someone entered any zip code during signup, we just had a lookup table to map it to latitude and longitude. Geolocation today means to deduce someone’s location based on the browser’s IP address which isn’t the case here.”
When pressed by Breitbart News, Lauren Easton, the director of communications for the AP, on Saturday admitted that it did not have “geolocation data” referenced in the two prior stories but still stood by those stories. It suggested that the “geolocational data” was merely noting that it was basically coming from the same zip code. Critics objected that the use of the term suggested that AP had data showing an account created with a specific IP, or internet protocol, address that can be tied to a specific location. Otherwise, with the reported admission of the intern, there was little to support the bombshell article published just before the election.
The AP questioned the claim of the intern. Moreno gave very specific information and a statement from former intern, Dan Ricci, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.” That statement included the admission that “I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago.” However, The AP said that it could not “independently confirm Ricci’s statement and he didn’t immediately respond to messages left for him on multiple phone numbers listed to him. He donated $6,599 to Moreno’s campaign last year, according to campaign finance records.”
I understand that the AP would want to communicate directly with Ricci. I also get the suggestion that Ricci might be simply a supporter covering for a candidate. However, I do not understand the basis for running the article in light of the countervailing evidence without something more than a loose claim of “geolocational data.” It is particularly suspicious when the posting was made sixteen years ago and was just published a few days before the election.
While AP did not confirm the statement of Ricci, counsel for Moreno (and the candidate himself) would be facing serious legal jeopardy if they made up the statements and lied about the admission.
Moreno has reportedly hired Charles Harder, one of the attorneys who led the lawsuits against Gawker before that publication closed.
A lawsuit could present some interesting questions since AP did incorporate the denial and alleged admission from the intern. It could argue that the rest is its opinion on the newsworthiness of the allegation. The issue is whether, given Moreno’s status as a public figure, the AP meets the “actual malice” standard for defamation as either knowingly publishing a false claim or doing so with reckless disregard of the truth. If Moreno sues and gains access to discovery against AP, this could prove a costly and embarrassing matter for the company.
Looks like that excellent film Absence of Malice (with Paul Newman and Sally Fields) would be good required viewing for your students right now…
Moreno Fears Rape Victims Could Be ‘Forced To Get Abortions’..!!
Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno falsely claimed in a recent interview that Issue 1 — the ballot measure seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution — would allow a rapist to “force” a woman to have an abortion.
The remark by Moreno, a businessman, is the latest from groups and individuals opposed to Issue 1 to mischaracterize the proposal by tying it to parental rights.
“As a dad of two girls, it’s about having that girl be able to be raped and having a rapist force her to have an abortion — all without your consent — as a minor,” Moreno said in an Oct. 12 episode of the RestoreLiberty.US podcast.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/ohio-gop-candidate-bernie-moreno-issue-1-rapist-force-woman-abortion-rcna122856
………………………………..
Women are naturally fearful that abortion bans could force them to carry a rapist’s baby. For this reason, public opinion polls show overwhelming support for abortion when pregnancies result from rape.
But here Bernie Moreno stands logic on its head. He’s afraid the rapist could force the victim to get an abortion! As though most women would want to carry the rapist’s baby!!
Moreno qualifies his claims by noting that he’s the dad of 2 daughters. Does he presume his daughters would want to keep a rapist’s baby?? Maybe he should ask his daughters how they’d really feel about that.
10 years ago, even the most severe conservative would have thought twice before making comments like this. But sadly America now suffers an epidemic of political lunacy. Call it the ‘Trump effect’.
In this environment, MAGA Republicans try to top each to see who can make the most insane remarks without being carted off to the loony bin. Yet Professor Turley fears that lunatics like Moreno are being misrepresented!
People who believe that a baby is formed at conception may see evil being doubled if you kill a baby from a rape. The precious baby is innocent and a gift.
@JG,
I wish those who want to talk about conception, birth and abortion actually spend time learning about the miracle of life.
There’s this thing called fetal malformations. Specifically gross fetal malformations. Now Denise and Giggly will think of the wrong meaning for the term ‘gross’ as in disgusting. What is meant by ‘gross fetal malformations’ is massive fetal malformations where the fetus is non-viable.
And yes, I happen to know something about this.
40 yrs ago I was a student researcher working on an NSF grant to do statistical research on this issue.
So yeah… when I hear people talk about abortion… from both sides… they miss a huge chunk of the issue.
-G
If you enshrine abortion as a right in a state constitution – how are you going to prevent the father from excercizing that right ?
I know it is hard fro left wing nuts but the only rights are human rights.
There are no “women’s rights” or “minority rights”.
10 years ago, even the most severe liberal Democrat person would not think that little boys should be castrated, or little girls have both their breasts cut off, as a form of cosmetic surgery. And you want to call the other side lunatics???
The posting is about the media, intentionally misquoting and lying.
Which means a good leftist is going quote another media outlet that has been doing the same for years.
Dont believe your clickbait.
Rudy Giuliani said it best: “The AP is a direct descendant of Pravda, the former news service for the Soviet Union.”
He was referring to the shamefully deceptive AP reporting on Laken Reilly’s murderer being “an Athens man…”
“Was he from Greece?
Or was he a gang member from Venezuela who came into the country only because of Biden’s illegal policies?
But they don’t write that in the AP article.”
What happened to Laken was terrible. You do know (perhaps you don’t), immigrants, legal and not so legal, are involved in crime less than native born. Nothing we can do will bring Laken back. But if you want to reduce future crime. Deport all native born and let the illegals stay. Check out crime statistics. Shouldn’t be too hard for you to do. Or would you rather believe rambling nonsense from an orang self important dweeb?
The facts show that law enforcement has been refusing to charge crimes, of illegals, because prosecution is all but impossible.
Trump’s Babbling In Ohio Upstaged Moreno
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, confused the crowd by insisting that Biden had beaten “Barack Hussein Obama” in elections nationally that never took place.
“You know what’s interesting? Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama. Has anyone ever heard of him? Every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed,” Trump said.
Trump’s Ohio address, ostensibly in support of Bernie Moreno, his preferred candidate in the state’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday, also saw the former president returning to darker, more apocalyptic themes.
“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump said, without clarifying what he meant.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/17/trump-verbal-gaffes-ohio-rally-bloodbath
…………………………………….
The ‘bloodbath’ reference is all we need to determine that SCOTUS unleashed a maniac by delaying Trump’s insurrection trial. ‘Yes’, Trump will want a ‘bloodbath’ as retribution for the possible defeat he might suffer.
Trump’s threat, however, was of no consequence to Professor Turley. The latter couldn’t possibly deviate from his bashing of mainstream media to comment on Trump’s sanity; a far-more-pressing issue in the minds of still-sane Americans.
Dementia could possibly be Trump’s most pressing issue. That claim that Biden beat Obama is so far-removed from any real event that it’s impossible to guess what Trump was thinking. ‘Yes’, we all get names confused at times. But here Trump is babbling like an elder in assisted care.
The link below includes a video clip of Trump’s reference to the non-existent Biden/Obama race. One can see the audience behind Trump blinking with confusion. Like, “What did he just say??”
As usual.
Democrats lie, cheat and steal.
Turley is adamant that people lying on the internet is free speech and is ok with the government forcing companies to host these lies. How is this any different? Either lying is protected or it is not.
Did you not see the reference to Gawker (RIP)? Defamations suits are civil actions and do apply to the internet.
The AP had best correct their story… this now becomes actionable.
Moreno has presented evidence that their story is factually incorrect and they admitted to some degree …
At this point, failing to correct a knowingly false story which defames Moreno is actionable.
Sucks to be them.
-G
Jonathan: Other things were in the news this week that caught my attention about the 2024 campaign this year. Some were embarrassing and others humiliating and others downright dangerous.
First, everyone knows SD GOP Gov. Kristi Noem is auditioning to be DJT’s VP pick. And what is Noem doing to burnish her image? She has taken a page out of DJT’s scams like the “golden sneakers” ads. This week Noem released a video ad showing off her fresh dental work from “Smile Texas”. On Thursday she posted a 24-second video ad on “X” for her new shoe insoles from “Fit My Feet”. When asked whether she was paid for the promos Noem had no comment. I would put Noem’s self-promotions as a sitting governor in the category of both embarrassing and humiliating.
Then, speaking of DJT’s “bloodbath” comment at his rally in Ohio, one GOP candidate in N. Carolina is besting her leader. Michelle Morrow is the GOP candidate for superintendent of NC’s public schools. For a long time Morrow has called for the execution of prominent Dems. In 2020 she expressed the desire for the killing of Obama and then president-elect Joe Biden. She said: “We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!!”
And this is the person who wants to oversee the NC school system! Morrow calls public schools “socialist centers” for “indoctrination”. She wants to abolish the state’s Board of Education so she can impose her own standards of education. She is a big promoter of QAnon conspiracy theories–like the one that claims celebrities harvest and drink the blood of children to prolong their own lives. Now I would put Morrow’s views in the category of dangerous!
So this appears to be the lineup of some of the GOP candidates running for pubic office in this year’s election. One in Ohio who endorses DJT who calls for a “bloodbath” if he doesn’t win. Another who shamelessly engages in ad promos to try to get DJT’s pick for VP. And the GOP candidate in NC who thinks prominent Dems should be executed. No wonder voters are beginning to have second thoughts about the direction of the Republican Party this year!
Then there is this more recent steaming, stinking, heap of hysterical media horseshit:
Musk Defends Former President After Leftist Corporate Media Unleashes Trump “Bloodbath Hoax”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/leftist-corporate-media-unleash-bloodbath-hoax-after-trumps-speech
Elon Musk defends Trump and slams establishment media for taking quote out of context
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/elon-musk-defends-trump-and-slams-establishment-media-taking-quote-out-context
This was the context of the statement made by Trump on Saturday at an Ohio rally, in reference to reported plans by China to funnel cheap EV’s and other vehicles through Mexico to the US:
“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if – I get elected,” Trump said at the Ohio rally Saturday. “Now if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole, that’s going to be the least of it, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.”
Now, many things Trump says could and should be made clearer, and he does sometimes wander a bit, but the bloodbath remark was clearly in refernce to economic issues such as imporitng cheap Chinese vehicles. Just look at the deliberate, malicious, mischaracterization in the images in the first article.
OLieO
It’s obvious, Associated Propaganda is part of the Mockingbird Media.
I don’t get it. I thought we weren’t discriminating based on sexual orientation anymore. So even if the story had any basis in fact, which it clearly didn’t, why would AP choose to run it? “Nyah nyah Bernie’s gay” – that’s their story?
Anonymous said: ““Nyah nyah Bernie’s gay” – that’s their story?”
I seem to recall that I read on another site that Moreno had made some statement, or adopted some position, that the LBGT activist lobby considered to be objectionable. In which case the AP was trying to paint him as a hypocrite. Still pretty weak sauce these days, imo, how many politicians have never been guilty of seeming hypocrisy at some level?
@ #6,
The issue here is that they want to poison his conservative base.
One would guess that it was prompted by Dolan or his supporters… but it could be the libtards who think that DeWine has a better chance against Dolan.
If TikTok is a tactical CCP Trojan Horse, The AP (Apparatchik Press) is an integral Department inside CCP Headquarters.
The mainstream media in once-free America have rotted to their communist collective core; they have employed their constitutional freedoms to impose the enslavement of communism.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“That dudn’t make any sense.”
– George W. Bush
I hope that Mr. Moreno files a suit and that he is successful. It is interesting that errors that are made by the Associated Press always go the same way: damaging for Republications, helpful to Democrats. If you think of the Associated Press as a bunch of Democratic Party operatives with press passes you won’t be far off.
the press wonders why the general public no longer trusts them, well this story shows why
Interesting. Apparently, the AP considers gay dating a crime that has to be reported–even if it’s made up. Didn’t see that coming.
Glenn Greenwald, I think you should investigate gay bashing at the AP.
First, they came for the Jews. Now the gays. The Left has become a cannibal buffet.
Diogenes,
The AP is trying to imply some kind of scandal here, where as the scandal is them and their shoddy reporting.
As one of the mouthpieces of the DNC propaganda, it does not look well for them.
Upstate, I hope Moreno can sue the AP in a red state–or better yet, a red county. I see malice here that’s worth a cool $787.5 million.
Go for One Billion Dollars!
“The Left has become a cannibal buffet.”
Maybe the DNC should change its convention site to Port-au-Prince this year???
“while geolocation data indicates that the account was set up for use in a part of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where property records show Moreno’s parents owned a home at the time”. How is that statement untrue?
Geolocation data means they trace the IP address. As is explained in the post, at the time in question, people just entered a zip code manually. Anybody could enter any zip code. Hope this helps!
Anonymous said: “Anybody could enter any zip code.”
Anyone who is prudent enough to browse the internet using a good VPN, and who understands how to use it, could prank “geolocation”, even today. I’m sitting in my den in Chicago, Illinois at this moment… not! Of course one couldn’t expect the colossal ignoramuses at organizations like AP to make themselves aware of such pedantic details.
Wow.
No. In simple terms Geo location is the ability to generate a coordinate or area based on translating a reference to an action location.
This is where the confusion comes in…
Back when the website was created… ‘geo location’ meant taking the address / zip code and then using it to translate the zip code to an area on the map.
Chicago 60654 is Merchandise Mart’s post office. Then became part of River North neighborhood. So if I gave you an address, we could deduce a rough area of location.
As pointed out… there was no way to actually tie that back to a person who entered it.
Even the IP address has limited accuracy… For example, my internet provider’s geo location of my IP address is actualy 30 miles from my current location.
Yet from space, that pin placed on the map is accurate enough.
While there was some confusion about the meaning back then… today… it takes on a different meaning because rather that use data that cannot be verified, geo location today implies accurate data sourcing.
This is why its actionable.
Various people immediately objected to the claim of the geolocational evidence, including the man who reportedly created the code for the site. Adult Friend Finder founder Andrew Conru expressed shock at the reporting and posting a detailed refutation of the claim:
“I reviewed all the available information and it showed that the account had only a single visit, no activity, no profile photo, consistent with a prank or someone just checking out the site. That’s it. The AP report seeming to claim that the available data proves the account was created in Florida is inaccurate, as location information is manually entered during the signup process. In reality, there appears to be no public geolocation data tied to the account.”
He added later:
“Ah, just noticed what people are calling geolocation. In 2008, when someone entered any zip code during signup, we just had a lookup table to map it to latitude and longitude. Geolocation today means to deduce someone’s location based on the browser’s IP address which isn’t the case here.”
What Trump said,
“Trump is predicting a bloodbath in the automobile industry if he loses: pic.twitter.com/uO8DTwbp4Z
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 16, 2024”
What Biden campaign is saying,
“Trump: If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. It’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country pic.twitter.com/BWpWORo9Hs
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) March 16, 2024”
Many MSM are running similar headlines.
Meanwhile, the adult in the room,
“Legacy media lies https://t.co/3yQHajk5BE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 17, 2024″
“Yup, hoax-making in process.
And it is surprisingly effective!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 17, 2024”
UpstateFarmer said: “What Trump said”
Sorry, I didn’t see that you had already posted that.
Jonathan: You know it’s election season when you write an entire column defending Bernie Moreno, a former luxury car dealership tycoon, who endorsed DJT at a rally on Saturday at a rally in Ohio. Moreno is running for the GOP nomination to run against Dem. Senator Sherrod Brown.
Why is DJT endorsing Moreno? At the rally Moreno fawned over DJT: “I am so sick of Republicans that will say ‘I support President Trump’s policies, but I don’t like the man’. This is a good man. This is a great American. This is a man who wakes up every day fighting for us”.
Like many in DJT’s campaign, Moreno is worried that many mainstream GOP voters are turned off by all of DJT’s many legal troubles–the 4 criminal indictments, the $83.3 million civil judgment against DJT for raping and defaming E. Jean Carroll and the NY judgment finding DJT liable for “persistent financial fraud”. The optics are not good for GOP voters, especially GOP women.
And many GOP voters are alarmed by DJT’s continued violent and and incendiary rhetoric. At the same rally on Saturday in Ohio DJT said this: “If we don’t win this election, I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country…If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole country”. Moreno seems to think that kind of violent rhetoric makes DJT a “good man”!
All the stuff in your column about a possible lawsuit against the AP is smoke and mirrors. That’s not the issue. The issue for Ohio voters is whether they want to vote for Moreno, a GOP candidate who supports an insurrectionist and wannabe dictator!
Nice hit job that happens not to have anything to do with the subject of the Prof’s column.
That’s all DM knows to write. Every comment is an attack on the learned professor and Trump.
garyesq2k2 said: “Nice hit job…”
“Drive-by” McIntyre’s specialty
nothing in your posting is remotely connected with the Perfessers article
Thank youDeMac for reminding me to go clean the cat pan!
I think Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan should conduct a thorough investigation.
Me too!