You expect tabloid journalism from a tabloid paper, but this Daily Mail headline …
“Elon Musk wins court case against Democrats over $1million daily handouts to voters”
… is an outright lie. The story itself clarifies that …
“Judge Angelo Foglietta moved the case to a federal court – likely delaying it until after the election and so allowing the handouts to continue.”
… but even that disguises what really happened. (See Daily Mail story here.) NBC News‘s reportage (here) fills in the gaps:
“Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit over the contest Monday in state court, but late Wednesday, lawyers for Musk and his America PAC filed papers in federal court to move the matter there, arguing that federal law — not state law — was central to the case. …
“The federal court filing automatically blocked any immediate action in state court, where Judge Angelo Foglietta had already scheduled Thursday’s hearing. Foglietta went ahead with the hearing but acknowledged that the federal filing had stripped him of jurisdiction to hear arguments. …
“Thursday afternoon, Krasner’s attorneys filed an emergency motion in federal court to send the case back to state court, arguing that the suit makes claims only under Pennsylvania law, not federal law. … U.S. District Judge Jerry Pappert … ordered Musk’s attorneys to file a response by 10 a.m. ET Friday.”
In other words, Musk didn’t “win” the case. The only thing that happened is his lawyers filed a motion to remove the case from state court to federal court. Even a green reporter ill-versed in legal procedure should have understood that’s a legal maneuver, not a legal win; someone with more experience would rightly see it as a delaying tactic.
Do you think Daily Mail published a correction after the federal judge rebuffed the gambit Friday morning and returned the case to state court, where Judge Foglietta’s hearing will proceed on Monday, Nov. 4, a day before the election (see story here)? Not that I could find, and don’t hold your breath.
Daily Mail badly flubbed this story. It’s hard to tell whether because of bias or incompetence, but even making reasonable allowance for some of both (Daily Mail has a pronounced rightward political lean), it got almost none of the facts right, and failing to correct the error is inexcusable even for tabloid journalism.