This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
On May 26, the Deseret News published an op-ed by Sen. Orrin Hatch: "My Meeting With Supreme Court Nominee Eric Garland." He described meeting with Garland, and how it hadn't changed his stance on blocking nomination hearings.
Strangely, his op-ed appeared on the newspaper's website at midnight, at least six hours before this supposed meeting could have happened.
Perhaps it remains to be seen whether Sen. Hatch is a time traveler, or simply a mendacious liar with a seat in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but any newspaper with journalistic integrity would have noted such a laughable inconsistency.
Instead, the Deseret News quietly scrubbed the article — but not before screenshots were obtained and reported on by national news outlets. Its URL displayed, "Oops, the page you are looking for cannot be found," until the column suddenly reappeared, with the time of publication altered from midnight to 5:10 p.m. along with an editor's note: "A draft of this op-ed was erroneously published on DeseretNews.com prior to final revisions and edits from Sen. Hatch. We apologize to Sen. Hatch and our readers for this error."
Conveniently left out of this half-hearted apology was any acknowledgment that the Deseret News published a fabricated story written by a sitting U.S. senator.
Jason Tiscione
Salt Lake City