‘SCALPED’ – Daily Beast Forced to Retract Lies About Chris Rufo
The Daily Beast was forced to issue a correction this weekend after it ran a ham-handed smear campaign against conservative writer and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo. The column, first published under the short-lived headline “Influential Anti-Woke Activist Is Open to Working With Racists and Fascists,” was immediately contested by Rufo, who forced the site to admit that the story was bogus.
The column’s author, Jared Holt, had accused Rufo of being sympathetic to homophobia, racism, extremism, fascism, and a few other -isms. After taking a beating on social media, Holt deleted a post promoting his column.
“The Daily Beast’s [Jared Holt] has now deleted the tweet featuring his false and defamatory article against me, after his editors had to retract his key claims,” Rufo posted to X on Friday night. “An absolute embarrassment to journalism.”
Just hours before, Rufo had threatened the publication with legal action, citing defamation, and urged his followers to write to the editorial board and demand a correction.
“The Daily Beast has published a false, malicious, and defamatory article accusing me of ‘being open to working with racists and fascists.’ In fact, I have argued precisely the opposite. I have asked my attorney at Dhillon Law Group to prepare for legal action.”
The ‘Beast’ folded almost immediately.
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The Daily Beast's @jaredlholt has now deleted the tweet featuring his false and defamatory article against me, after his editors had to retract his key claims. An absolute embarrassment to journalism. pic.twitter.com/YPFXsKA8Cy
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 6, 2023
After changing the headline, the editors added a note to the top of the column explaining their retraction,
“The headline of this story has been updated to delete that Rufo is open to working with racists and fascists, which Rufo had explicitly denied. We have updated the story accordingly and added comment from Rufo.”
Sure enough, a comment from Rufo now sits at the bottom of the hit piece,
“I have never suggested in any way, shape, or form that I am ‘open to working with racists and fascists’—and your claim that I have done so is deliberately false, malicious, and defamatory, with a clear intention of tarnishing my reputation. Contrary to your claims, I have repeatedly argued the opposite…”
While Rufo quickly took his victory to social media, saying the left-wing outlet had been “SCALPED,” he maintained that there were “still some false and defamatory details in the body of the story” for which he “further requested correction.”
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This is a supremely embarassing retraction for the Daily Beast, which is notable, given the publication's long-standing lack of standards. Their smear backfired—discrediting them, not me. Let it serve as a warning to others. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/aj29ipeBQV
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 6, 2023
Holt later reposted a link to his column on X, this time with the more subdued caption “Column from today.”
“*Corrected* column from today,” one commenter replied.
“Rufo had so many receipts disproving your smears that when Daily Beast added them to avoid a lawsuit the receipts are almost as long as your entire hit piece. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said one reply.
“Would you say that publishing a big story against someone you hate only to be threatened with legal action & failing to hide the evidence and now seeing a bunch of people you despise laugh at you underneath the story you were excited for just 24 hours ago has been frustrating?” another commenter added.
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