As Twitchy reported earlier, the Department of Labor accepted the resignation of Leif Olson after Bloomberg’s Ben Penn hit him with a scoop/smear: He took a Facebook post of Olson’s mocking notorious anti-Semite Paul Nehlen, cropped out the context that showed it was clearly sarcastic and called it “anti-Semitic.” Why? Well, in a follow-up tweet Penn made it pretty clear that his motivation was political.

Even the Anti-Defamation League decided to pile on; Will Chamberlin reports at Human Events:

Also of note is the Anti-Defamation League’s decision to pile on Benjamin Penn’s smear of Olson. Jake Hyman, a spokesman for the ADL in New York, stated that “[t]he post in question is clearly anti-Semitic,” and that Olson must “apologize and affirm that he no longer harbors such virulently hateful views.” It is unclear if the ADL’s Jake Hyman read the entire post or the comments that indicated that Olson was clearly being sarcastic. It is also unclear on what basis the ADL’s Jake Hyman is suggesting that Olson has ever “harbored anti-Semitic views.”

Journalist Yair Rosenberg wrote about the whole debacle for Tablet Magazine.

Leif Olson, a Trump labor official, sarcastically mocked the anti-Semitic critics of Paul Ryan, and their conservative media enabler Breitbart. Bloomberg took those posts, selectively cropped them, missed the joke, and forced his resignation. My latest: https://t.co/QvlekPHOnJ — (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 3, 2019

In his reporting, Rosenberg apparently reached out to the Anti-Defamation League for comment, and though they didn’t have anything to say about Penn, they did accept Olson’s explanation that he intended to be sarcastic.

An @adl rep sends over this update on Leif Olson, the Trump labor official whose mockery of the alt-right was misconstrued as sympathy: "We appreciate Mr. Olson’s clarification that he intended to be sarcastic with his posts, and accept his explanation of the content in question” — (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 3, 2019

Well, that must be a relief.

No comment on the journalist who blatantly misrepresented it? You'd think the ADL would care about being roped into a false accusation of anti-Semitism… — I Could Be Wrong (@dansblog1) September 3, 2019

Why did the ADL condemn him in the first place? Are they lacking the expertise you referenced earlier? Did they not see the other post that Bloomberg copied that specifically makes it clear what he was mocking (or did they only add that later)? — Eggy McEggHead (@honestpolitics1) September 3, 2019

Sounds like the Catholic Church jumping the gun on the Covington Boys, reflexively knee-jerking and bowing to the mob, and only afterward soberly inspecting the actual situation, then doing a 180 — JacquesDoreseyPhD (@JDoresey) September 3, 2019

Yep.

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