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Email exposes @blaw for misleading readers about reporter @benjaminpenn’s hit job on Trump Department of Labor appointee Leif Olson
One of the most shameful and egregious media failures of the year has just gotten even worse for Bloomberg Law with the exposure of a new email showing that its reporter, along with the organization, dramatically misrepresented communications with the Dept of Labor.
This was done as part of a hit job that temporarily led to a Trump appointee's resignation.
Far from an innocent inquiry that Ben Penn presented it as, an email obtained through FOIA shows he asked the department accusatory questions that were clearly an effort to get appointee Leif Olson fired by falsely smearing him as an anti-Semite.
Penn, misrepresenting old Facebook posts, asked whether the department found Olson "fit for government service" and whether they were OK with senior employees who made "comments that were disparaging to Jews."
Last month, Bloomberg Law's Penn proudly tweeted out a "scoop" that Olson, who had recently started as an adviser in the department's Wage and Hour Division, had been forced to resign after the surfacing of Facebook posts that were described as anti-Semitic.
t was immediately quite clear, to anybody who took two seconds to read the posts, that far from being anti-Semitic, Olson was actually using sarcasm to mock anti-Semites.
Luckily, sanity eventually prevailed and the Department of Labor reinstated Penn.
Luckily, sanity eventually prevailed and the Department of Labor reinstated Penn.
At the time, however, what was particularly amazing was how little remorse was shown by Penn and Bloomberg, as they refused to back down even long after it was widely accepted that the posts were sarcastic.
Penn dug in, playing it off as if all he did was ask for comment on Facebook posts. 
A Bloomberg spokesperson echoed Penn's benign explanation.
However, lawyer Ted Frank, a friend of Olson, filed a FOIA request on the email Penn sent the Department of Labor, and it reveals the truth was much different.
However, lawyer Ted Frank, a friend of Olson, filed a FOIA request on the email Penn sent the Department of Labor, and it reveals the truth was much different.
In the email, Penn sent FB posts without proper context and asked leading questions to the department. The questions rest on the assumption that the posts were anti-Semitic and were clearly pushing the department toward firing him or explaining why they are OK with anti-Semitism.
Some excerpts:
"[W]e are focusing on an August 2016 Facebook post in which Mr. Olson made a remark that references two anti-Semitic tropes."
"If DOL was previously aware of it, did this post raise any flags inside the admin about whether he is fit for government service?"
"[W]e are focusing on an August 2016 Facebook post in which Mr. Olson made a remark that references two anti-Semitic tropes."
"If DOL was previously aware of it, did this post raise any flags inside the admin about whether he is fit for government service?"
"Does the Labor Department find comments that are disparaging to Jews acceptable for a senior appointee?"
"Olson is on a team at WHD responsible for writing some top priority regulations -- will he remain in this or any other role at DOL?"
"Olson is on a team at WHD responsible for writing some top priority regulations -- will he remain in this or any other role at DOL?"
It's very hard to escape the conclusion that Penn is a reporter with an agenda. He dishonestly attempted to smear an innocent man all in the hopes that he would cripple a key division of the Trump Labor Department.
.@blaw spent days making various updates attempting to clean up the story, not just for its treatment of the Facebook posts but also for numerous factual errors. It now has a lot more explaining to do.
