His Fraudulent Story Exposed, Jim Hoft Tries to Edit History
Right wing blogger Jim Hoft’s bogus claim on August 19 that officer Darren Wilson suffered an “orbital blowout fracture of the eye socket” at the hands of Michael Brown was shared on Facebook almost 900,000 times, and Hoft has continued to relentlessly repeat this claim for months, in post after rabble-rousing post at Gateway Pundit.
Then, the photos of Darren Wilson’s real facial injuries were released (and showed only very slight reddening on one side of his face):
How does the Stupidest and Most Unethical Man on the Internet react? By going back to that original post and completely wiping it out, even changing the title: UPDATE: Officer Darren Wilson Suffered Severe Facial Contusions After Severe Beating During Mike Brown Attack | the Gateway Pundit.
Notice that the URL still contains the original title: “breaking-report-po-darren-wilson-suffered-orbital-blowout-fracture-to-eye-socket-during-encounter-with-mike-brown”.
The new text he added:
THIS POST WAS UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 24, 2014
The medical report was released after the jury decision was announced.
Darren Wilson suffered severe contusions after he was beat in the head by Michael Brown.
The police Report is here.
We previously reported that Officer Wilson suffered and [sic] orbital eye-socket fracture. It now appears he suffered severe bruising but no fracture.
Here’s a screenshot of Hoft’s original post:
And here’s what it looks like now:
So rather than publishing a retraction in a new post people won’t miss, Hoft has hidden his acknowledgment that he was pushing a fake story in a 4-month old post he thinks almost no one will see, and still vastly exaggerates Wilson’s injuries as “severe facial contusions” from a “severe beating.”
“Sleazy” doesn’t even begin to describe this. It’s a completely unacceptable way to correct a false story that has done an incredible amount to poison the well of public opinion.