Tom Elliott Blatantly Lied About Rep. Omar Saying Lindsay Graham is Gay And Journalists Didn’t Even Watch The Video Before Retweeting
Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar was accused on Thursday morning of calling South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham gay. The accusation was lobbed her way by Founder and editor of Grabien Media and NewsLists.co, Tom Elliott.
Elliott’s tweet was quickly picked up by Washington Post writer Aaron Blake who retweeted the message, along with similar actions from the teams at CNN, The Guardian, and others. There’s only one problem — She never made the comment during the interview.
Most shockingly perhaps, Elliott shared the video and political writers across the country failed to even watch the entire video, including Ben Jacobs and Poppy Harlow who both quickly deleted their retweets after realizing the comment was in no way factual.
Here’s the tweet that started the firestorm against Rep Omar.
Rep. Omar: "Lots of Americans" agree with me that Trump is blackmailing Sen. Graham over his homosexuality pic.twitter.com/xPMAUHSLYE
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 17, 2019
After being called out for his blatant lie, Tom Elliott attempted to justify his initial tweet by calling her words a “dog whistle” regarding Graham’s sexuality.
TruthorFiction.com Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, an expert in disinformation campaigns, was quick to call out Elliott’s comments.
Truly disgusting. And you call yourself a journalist. What an embarrassment you and the people who fell for your shit are.
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) January 17, 2019
Binkowski also held Washington Post writer Aaron Blake to task over his decision to give Elliott’s remarks a retweet without actually watching the video.
Blake was quickly called out and at first defended his decision:
Innuendo is a thing that exists. https://t.co/9SfPNh7kkJ
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) January 17, 2019
Binkowski then made her case for actual reporting versus innuendo:
Since when do we journalists traffic in innuendo and not facts? Please don't make my anti-disinformation work harder. Just admit you didn't watch the whole thing.
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) January 17, 2019
Blake ultimately admitted sharing the tweet was a mistake and he removed his endorsement.
We applaud Blake for his decision to act responsibly after the fact but the @tomselliott Twitter handle is one you’ll probably want to add to your list of disinformation offenders and Twitter block list.