On Tuesday, the women of “The View” hammered New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly for elevating an unsubstantiated accusation against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in its Sunday Review section that excluded the vital detail that the alleged victim did not recall the incident in question. Only after the Times was called out for the omission did it update with the significant correction.
During the questioning by the co-hosts, Pogrebin and Kelly again deflected blame to their editors and made key concessions regarding their credibility. Pogrebin also copped to writing an infamous now-deleted tweet posted by the Times about Mr. Kavanaugh’s genitalia.
“The New York Times’ ran an excerpt of your book over the weekend in the opinion section that included a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh. But you guys left out a key detail; the alleged victim — who you name by name in the book, but you’re not gonna name her here on the show — ‘refused to discuss the incident’ and ‘several of her friends said [that she doesn’t] recall it happening,’” McCain laid into the reporters.
“I think this is sort of Ground Zero for why so many people mistrust the media, why The New York Times has the nickname ‘The New York Slimes’ from many people in conservative circles,” continued McCain. “The Times actually had to run an editors’ note following up. How did this vital fact get left out?”
Kelly claimed “there was no desire to withhold vital information from our readers,” citing that the book included the detail initially omitted from the opinion piece. “We had to edit for length and clarity,” she rationalized.
The Times reporter then shifted blame to her editors. “During the editing process there was an oversight, and this key detail about the fact that the woman herself has told friends that she doesn’t remember and has not wanted to talk about it got cut,” she said.
“It was an oversight and the Times corrected it and, uh, we’re very sorry that that happened,” Kelly added.
McCain then pressed the reporters as to why they used the alleged victim’s name in their book despite the fact that the woman did not want her name revealed.
“I understand that the woman didn’t want her name out publicly,” the co-host told the reporters. “If not, why is her name in the book?”
“Her name is in the book because we think it’s relevant information,” Kelly unapologetically stated.
Kelly noted that former Kavanaugh classmate Max Stier provided the name. McCain again chimed in: “He’s a Clintonite, right?”
“He did, I understand, work for Williams and Connolly,” confessed Kelly.
“Why wasn’t that in the piece, if we’re talking about credibility?” co-host Abby Huntsman pressed.
“Right, uh, I understand it’s relevant background,” conceded Kelly. “We didn’t see all of that context to be necessary,” she added, “but I understand why you’re bringing it up and I think it’s fair.”
McCain also inquired about Kelly and Pogrebin “throwing The New York Times opinion editorial board under the bus.”
“In my experience, I get the final say,” McCain said of the opinion pieces she’s written for the Times. “So, where was the disconnect there?” she asked the reporters.
Kelly said the editing process is “a team effort [and] there was just an oversight here.”
“Did you guys just miss it?” pressed co-host Sunny Hostin. “Did you miss that that was so important? You are the authors of the book, did you just miss it … in The New York Times opinion piece?”
“I think actually the way it happened was the Times was concerned about naming her. … In that sentence there has her name, it also had that she didn’t remember it,” Pogrebin said, claiming that when they removed the sentence, they accidentally omitted the most vital detail of the claim.
“Did you read it right before it went to print?” Hostin continued her questioning.
“Ya know, we thought we did,” responded Pogrebin. “And as soon as we realized it, we corrected it,” she claimed.
During the interview, Pogrebin confessed to crafting a controversial tweet about Justice Kavanaugh’s “penis.” The tweet, which was later deleted and disavowed by the Times, read: “Having a penis thrust in your face at a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun. But when Brett Kavanaugh did it to her, Deborah Ramirez says, it confirmed that she didn’t belong at Yale in the first place.”
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Related: New York Times Deletes Tweet About Brett Kavanaugh’s ‘Penis’