Candace Ortiz at Mediaite reported that former New York Times editorial staff Bari Weiss offered a little story to Sen. Tim Scott on her podcast.
“I wanna tell you a little story that I’m not sure if you know,” Weiss began, discussing his proposed police-reform bill that was endorsed by a range of people including Senator Chuck Schumer. The bill didn't pass.
“Well, here’s what happened. I was at the New York Times and you or your staff sent in an op-ed about the bill and why it fell apart,” Weiss recounted. “And this is the part I’m not sure if you know. There was a discussion about the piece and whether or not we should run it. And one colleague, a more senior colleague said to a more junior colleague who was pushing for the piece, ‘Do you think the Republicans really care about minority rights?'”
Scott said "Wow."
“And the more junior colleagues said, ‘I think Tim Scott cares about minority rights.’ And then, and here’s the pretty shocking part. The more senior colleague said, ‘Let’s check with Senator Schumer before we run it,'” Weiss added. She said the younger colleague felt that was unethical, and didn't call.
Weiss asked “Are you surprised to hear that? Or does that story feel kind of representative of the way the media has treated you and maybe some of your colleagues?” Scott said he was "disappointed" but not "surprised."
He added "You have to remember that The Washington Post fact-checked my life." (The Post "Fact Checker" squad pored all over very old records trying to prove Scott exaggerated his humble origins in a 2020 GOP convention speech. We picked that apart here.)
“I can’t tell you how disrespectful and dishonoring that entire process was — went on for three or four months as they went through records to find out whether or not my grandfather actually dropped out of the school in the third grade, their records suggested he dropped out in the fourth grade, but still didn’t learn to read,” he recalled. “They wanted to know if I had somehow hidden my silver spoon and just was using a plastic spoon instead.”
“And the more they dug, the more they realized that there was no evidence that disproved the fact that I am, who I say I am and that I experienced what I said I’ve experienced,” he added.
“So there is something in national media that wants to frame any conservatives, particularly Black conservatives as being disingenuous or insincere or a tool for the conservatives. When in fact the Black community is consistently as conservative as any community,” he concluded.
On Newsmax's Spicer & Co. on Friday, I argued that because Scott's op-ed never ran in the paper, we should guess that Schumer was consulted.
Talking on "Spicer & Co." on Newsmax about Bari Weiss telling Sen. Tim Scott in a podcast that a New York Times opinion editor wanted to check with Sen. Charles Schumer before running an op-ed on police reform by Sen. Scott. (It didn't make the cut.) pic.twitter.com/4D2Kk3nKZq
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) August 13, 2022
