British magazine The Telegraph has agreed to give Melania Trump “substantial damages” after publishing (and then retracting) a piece by Nina Burleigh that “included several inaccuracies.”

We apologise unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations. As a mark of our regret we have agreed to pay Mrs Trump substantial damages as well as her legal costs.

Nina Burleigh… Does that name sound familiar?

It should. Burleigh was the mouth of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF at Newsweek for about the last two years. Not unlike the Colorado Springs Independent’s Pam Zubeck, Burleigh has a reputation for publishing Weinstein’s rants and accusations essentially verbatim and without verification of the facts, nor apparently much independent thought at all.

Apparently that habit came back to bite her.

At various times she’s described Mikey Weinstein as “a retired Air Force officer” (he’s not), said President Trump was responsible for pressure in the military to convert to “fundamentalist Christianity” (offering no proof), claimed the Air Force was using Christianity to justify nuclear war (it didn’t), said a General had an illegal “secret” online ministry (he didn’t), and essentially repeated MRFF press releases targeting Fort Jackson’s prayer breakfast.

The apparent inability of “award-winning” Nina Burleigh to verify her facts or think critically about what she’s written has apparently resulted in a different kind of award — one that cost her publisher a “substantial” amount of money.

It seems the reputation she earned for playing loose with the facts to support the MRFF was validated. (For her part, Burleigh now accuses the Telegraph of defaming her and her book, upon which the article was based.)

If Burleigh manages to get published again, maybe she’ll think twice before reprinting Mikey Weinstein’s bigoted accusations against Christians as if they were facts.

In the meantime, given this example, consider what kind of “journalist” it takes to publish Mikey Weinstein’s hate-filled diatribes.  And remember, just because it’s on the internet — or published on Newsweek — doesn’t mean it’s true.

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