Deadspin's spin exposed

Deadspin, a sports website owned by Gawker Media, is “liberal, sarcastic, and humorous,” according to Wikipedia—and that combination was one more nail in the coffin of liberal media credibility on Thursday.

Deadspin reported that Cory Gardner, the Colorado GOP Senate candidate, lied when he talked about playing football in high school. Its source: a 77-year-old former teacher at Gardner’s school who purportedly told Deadspin (and ex–Washington Post) reporter Dave McKenna that Gardner did not play football. The teacher later said he didn’t remember saying that, and also said he had sent the reporter an email stating that Gardner had played—but he may have used the wrong email address.

It wasn’t hard for Gardner to show that he had played for two years. McKenna was apologetic to The Denver Post: “It’s my job to get everything right,” he reportedly said. “Whatever’s not right is my fault.” But Deadspin editor Tommy Craggs blamed the 77-year-old: “Our main source decided to unsay everything he’d said 24 hours earlier. What else can we do?” Later, in a mea culpa piece, he tried to show the sincerity of his repentance by using obscene self-denigrating language but still blamed the source.

The Bible has an answer to the “What else can we do?” question: Establish a policy to obtain the testimony of at least two witnesses before claiming that someone is lying. Deuteronomy 19:15: “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” 2 Corinthians 13:1: “… every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

But it’s hard to wait when the person accused of lying is a Republican.