Note: See Update below the fold.
It's time now to play a new political game: Who's the Liar?
In one corner we have the Huffington Post Washington bureau chief, Ryan Grim, who must be feeling very grim today because his "scoop" about the Bain Capital source of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's claim about Mitt Romney not paying taxes for 10 years has blown up on him. Grim Grim quoted Reid's spokesman, Jose Parra, as stating that Reid's Bain Capital source is a Republican. Unfortunately for grim Grim this assertion was countered by Parra's parry that he said no such thing. Since grim Grim placed Parra's supposed statement in quotes, one of them has to be lying.
First off we have this quote by grim Grim which was later contradicted by Parra's parry:
"This person is an investor in Bain Capital, a Republican also, and somebody who has been dealing with Romney's company for a long, long time and he has direct knowledge of this," said Reid aide Jose Parra, referring to Romney's tax returns.
And here is the update to the story that made Grim so grim:
UPDATE: 7:08 p.m. -- Parra now says he doesn't know whether Reid's source is Republican. In an email to HuffPost, he wrote:
"I do not know the party affiliation of the source, how long he invested with Bain, or his relationship to Romney beyond the fact that he was an investor with Bain Capital, as Senator Reid has previously stated."
Oops! So the big question here is who was lying: Grim or Parra? Please note that Grim placed Parra's claim about Reid's source being a Republican in quotes...a claim that Parra later denied. The only conclusion is that one of them has to be lying. Or perhaps they can get out of this by claiming that the source was Will McAvoy, a liberal "Newsroom" Democrat who is a Republican...but only in the fervid imagination of Aaron Sorkin.
If grim Grim loses his Huffington Post gig over this, he can always get a job at TruthOut working alongside such journalism "giants" as Jason Leopold and William Rivers Pitt. They can teach Grim that it is a good idea to wait at least 24 business hours to confirm a scoop before publishing it.
UPDATE: Harry Reid aide Jose Parra made his claim about Harry Reid's source being a Republican on KTLK Radio, not directly to Ryan Grim. Here is the audio of Parra who later contradicted what he said. So the question now is if Reid's source is not a Republican, could he be Harvey the Rabbit? And will Dana Bash of CNN continue describing the source as "credible?" And since it turns out that Parra was the one who was"misspeaking," Grim no longer faces the grim prospect of working alongside Jason Leopold.
