The Media

Journalism

The Washington Post is reporting that Dominican police officials are linking the man who paid prostitutes to lie about their relationship with Senator Menendez directly to Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller.

A top Dominican law enforcement official said Friday that a local lawyer has reported being paid by someone claiming to work for the conservative Web site the Daily Caller to find prostitutes who would lie and say they had sex for money with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). [...]

The videotaped claims of two women, made with their faces obscured, were posted last fall on the Daily Caller. The site reported that “the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. . . . They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.”

The Daily Caller issued a statement Friday saying that the information allegedly provided by the Dominican lawyer, Melanio Figueroa, was false.

Tucker Carlson is denying that The Daily Caller had any involvement in compelling the women to make up their stories, but personally I’m not convinced.

Considering that this was a Daily Caller exclusive story that they ran away with for an untold number of page-clicks, and the fact that The Daily Caller is known for James O’Keefe style videos and deceptive political smears, why should we believe that they had nothing to do with it?

At best, Carlson is correct and this will amount to little more than another hit on The Caller’s credibility. At worst, Senator Menendez may have a case for a civil lawsuit.