The Frances Perkins Building, the Department of Labor headquarters, in Washington, D.C. | (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Ed Brown)

Yesterday, a vicious and dishonest reporter working for Bloomberg named Ben Penn ran a vicious and dishonest story smearing labor attorney Leif Olson, a recent hire by the Trump Department of Labor, as an anti-Semite based on some Facebook commentary on Paul Ryan’s electoral curb-stomping of what appeared to be an actual anti-Semite (though, in fairness, not sufficiently so as to stand out at a meeting of the House Democrat caucus), Paul Nehlen. Any sane reading of the commentary would have identified it a facetious and making Nehlen the butt of a joke. But Penn and his editors pushed out the story branding Olson as an anti-Semite. (See the coverage by Sister Toldjah. Instead of doing the right thing, a gutless Department of Labor asked for Olson’s resignation.

In short order, especially after he began to receive heat even from the left, Penn was crowing about how he’d taken out a Trump appointee who was assisting in the rewriting of wage and hour regulations.

Lost in all of this is that Olson was part of a team of political appointees tasked with the heavy lift of drafting wage-hour regulations that are high priorities for Trump White House, business community. They're now down one adviser. https://t.co/PZbIScDHqe — Ben Penn (@benjaminpenn) September 3, 2019

Late this afternoon, the Department of Labor reconsidered.

The Department of Labor reinstated a political appointee Wednesday night who resigned under pressure after a Bloomberg Law reporter accused him of anti-Semitism for a Facebook post in which he was actually condemning anti-Semites in the alt-right, the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively learned. Acting Secretary Patrick Pizzella “personally made this decision after carefully reviewing all the facts and circumstances,” a senior Labor Department official told the DCNF. “He concluded that a correction is much better than an injustice.”

The outcome is just but it points to several related issues.

First, the response by Department of Labor was inexcusable. While it is conceivable that Olson tendered his resignation at the first hint of trouble, it is more likely that someone within the Labor Department’s management structure demanded Olson resign. If the latter is the case you have one of two things going on. Either that person is trying to sabotage the Administration’s agenda or they are a flaming gutless pus-bag. Either way, they need to be booted.

Second, it is very, very obvious that the media are acting as a journalistic hit squad and working on behalf of the Democrat Party and progressive activists to try to stymie the ability of the Administration to govern. This can only work if the Administration doesn’t treat them as what the obviously are, that is, the Biblical nest of vipers. If you thought the behavior of the media during the Russia hoax was limited to coverage of President Trump, now you know that is just how they roll.

Third, the fact that nothing ever happens to the people in the media who generate these bogus, politically motivated hits on Administration figures (how many fake scoops did CNN manufacture on the Russia hoax?) clearly shows that this is a pattern of behavior that is accepted if not actually encouraged and rewarded by major media outlets. At a minimum, Bloomberg should have apologized. They haven’t. They really should have disciplined Penn and his editor. They won’t.

This behavior is going to get worse as we get closer to November 2020 and when Trump gets reelected it is going hit stratospheric levels.

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