Story whitewashed Epstein case

Before the Daily Herald reprints any future political articles from the Washington Post, I strongly suggest you have your fact checkers verify the story. A recent front page story reprinted from WaPo said “Epstein wrote that Trump knew of sexual abuse but didn’t participate.”

In addition, the first paragraph stated, “Investor Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the sexual abuse of underage girls but never participated, according to thousands of pages of documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.”

Neither the Sun-Times, nor the right-leaning Tribune published this story. I have extensively scoured dozens of other legitimate and respected forms of journalism and have not found even one that claims President Trump, “never participated.” I’ve also searched right wing news outlets, such as Fox News, NewsNation, Newsmax and OAN, and have found no mention of this. It seems apparent that WaPo fabricated this “fact.”

As a retired journalist, I fully expect folks from both sides of the political aisle to work for legitimate news sources, such as the Daily Herald. But as working journalists, it is their duty to report factually, regardless of their personal views. How this story slipped by your editorial staff is beyond me. A story that calls Epstein an “investor” in its first reference, rather than child sex offender, or some such variance, surely should have raised eyebrows in the newsroom.

And let’s face it, while the Post was once a beacon of respected journalism, since owner Jeff Bezos started fawning over the current occupant of the White House, WaPo has lost its luster and many of its political stories are suspect.

Geri McCall Barrath

Schaumburg