Members of the news media once again thought they found a solid “gotcha” against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Once again they were wrong. They took his comments out of context in order to misrepresent his defense of himself.

On Monday, news broke that Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley, would appear on Fox News to respond to allegations he sexually assaulted two separate women in the early 1980s. As news of the impending interview broke, certain journalists began tweeting context-less excerpts from the judge's pre-taped sit-down with Fox’s Martha MacCallum.

The Washington Post’s James Hohmann, for example, tweeted the following:



MARTHA MACCALLUM:

“Never had sexual intercourse with anyone in high school?”



KAVANAUGH:

“Correct.”



MACCALLUM:

“And through what years in college, since we’re probing into your personal life here?”



KAVANAUGH:

“Many years after, I’ll leave it at that. Many years after.” — James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) September 24, 2018

Some in the news media saw their opening.

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman was one of the first out of the gate, notifying her 940,000-plus Twitter followers that neither of Kavanaugh’s accusers claim to have had sexual intercourse with the man.

“This however is neither here nor there re the allegation, which is a forcible attempted assault,” she tweeted.

The first Kavanaugh accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, alleges only that Kavanaugh tried to have sex with her. The second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, claims Kavanaugh exposed himself in front of her during a drinking game in college.

The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale had a similar take, tweeting, “Kavanaugh, accused of sex assaults that didn't involve intercourse: ‘I've never sexually assaulted anyone. I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.’ Fox treats this as relevant.”

The Washington Examiner’s Phil Klein and Kelly Cohen made the same point, with the former tweeting, “Still struggling to understand why Kavanaugh felt it was necessary to go into this detail. None of the allegations suggest he successfully raped anybody — all could be true even were he still a virgin,” and the latter tweeting, “just need to point out that none of the accusations against kavanaugh preclude him from being a virgin."

The New York Daily News even tweeted this dishonest headline: "Brett Kavanaugh claims he couldn't have sexually assaulted anyone who has accused him — because he was a virgin 'many years' into college."

The only problem with these takes is that Kavanaugh's remarks came in the context of him responding to allegations leveled by celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti, who claims the judge was once a leader of a ring of violent rapists. I am not making any of this up:



My e-mail of moments ago with Mike Davis, Chief Counsel for Nominations for U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. We demand that this process be thorough, open and fair, which is what the American public deserves. It must not be rushed and evidence/witnesses must not be hidden. pic.twitter.com/11XLZJBTtY — Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 24, 2018

Brett Kavanaugh must also be asked about this entry in his yearbook: "FFFFFFFourth of July." We believe that this stands for: Find them, French them, Feel them, Finger them, F*ck them, Forget them. As well as the term "Devil's Triangle." Perhaps Sen. Grassley can ask him. #Basta — Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 24, 2018

Haberman, Dale, and others would have known that Kavanaugh was responding to gang-rape allegations had they, you know, attempted to get the full context of the interview excerpts and done the bare minimum expected of their profession.

Dale tweeted later Monday evening, “The full clip, just aired, puts the ‘virgin’ remarks in a clearer context: Kavanaugh was asked if he had a role in any gang rapes, as lawyer Avenatti is suggesting. Fox’s preview clip omitted the question.”

Amazingly enough, even after the Fox interview aired and it was clear Kavanaugh was responding specifically to the Avenatti freak show, Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur said in a since-deleted tweet, “He added, 'I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.' The women aren’t claiming he had intercourse with them.”

It's only Monday.