Betsy Rothstein
Betsy Rothstein
Sex, Leaks, and #Spooks: "Access Journalism" in Washington DC | Guest: Betsy Rothstein
Betsy Rothstein was an American journalist based in Washington, D.C. Betsy Rothstein was a reporter and the Editor of The Mirror blog at The Daily Caller. [1] In June 2020, she passed away from cancer.
Education
A 1962 article in the JournalNews lists Betsy Rothstein as the daughter of "Mr. and Mrs. Jack Rothstein," a member of the 1964 graduating class at Elmira College, a "Scholar of the Second Rank" who made the dean’s list for both sophomore semesters and an exchange editor for the student Newspaper, Octagon.[5]
According to her Daily Caller biography, Rothstein graduated from Union College with a Bachelor's degree in Spanish. She earned a Master's degree at Medill School of Journalism.
Career
FAULT LINES W/ NIXON AND STRANAHAN — 10/11/17 — w/ Betsy Rothstein
She began her journalism career in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working for a Cuban newspaper where she conducted man-on-the-street interviews. She had asked Latinos about their love lives.
According to The Daily Caller biography, she also worked briefly as a press secretary for a Democratic Florida representative, spent a decade on Capitol Hill and was editor of gossip blog FishbowlDC before she ended up at The Daily Caller. [5]
According to her Linkedin page, Rothstein run The Mirror blog at The Daily Caller since October of 2013.
Controversy
Betsy Rothstein was involved in many controversies during her time at The Daily Caller. She made headlines after referring to transgender activist Janet Mock by the derogatory slur "tranny" in the headline of her article after reviewing an interview Piers Morgan conducted of Mock. The original title of the article, "CNN’s Piers Morgan unfairly gets his nuts handed to him by a tranny." The title as well as the article's actual contents drew backlash from many.[5]
Rothstein was also accused of being racist, due to headlines such as this one: "TheDC Investigates: Is WaPo’s Wesley Lowery Black?" in which she also posted a screenshot of a speeding ticket he received that contained his parents' address.
Rothstein was also criticized for an article, on which she had to write a correction.
Buzzfeed reporter Tracy Clayton called her out on Twitter stating that her lede was "a lie": "Buzzfeed reporter Tracy Clayton has taken her risqué reporting to new depths today with a Vine video that shows her enthusiastically shaking her ass for justice behind a police car."[5]
Rothstein's correction included adding words in italics to clarify that the person wasn't actually Clayton and an opening line that described Clayton as deciding to get off her "lazy (non-twerking) ass":
Six months after this article ran, BuzzFeed PR and Clayton decided to get off their lazy (non-twerking) asses to tell me that I got this wrong.
A publicist managed to communicate with me by email; Clayton meanwhile, went to the place she lives — Twitter.
The truth is, I would’ve happily corrected this six months ago.
And no, this wasn’t an attempt on my part to be racist or “libelous.”
So Clayton and her Twitter family can shove those thoughts right up their non-shaking asses.
The Mirror does wholeheartedly apologize for the error in assuming the often risqué Clayton would ever shake her butt cheeks for justice behind a police car.[5]
Rothstein, who is Jewish, also got into a Twitter fight with CNN's Jake Tapper, who accused her of "reveling in anti-Semitism." The accusation was leveled because of a line describing a party held by Milo Yiannopoulos: "dancing midgets clad in yarmulkes, bris bibs and 'Ben Shapiro' nametags." Rothstein called the criticism unfair because she said a New York Post article also contained similar details about Yiannopolous' party. [5]
Rothstein was also accused of proliferating a story with a sensational and misleading headline that read, "Here's the Photo Some People Described as a Nude Selfie of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."
The headline was eventually fixed and the photo was acknowledged as a fake in the body of the story, yet that didn’t stop Ocasio-Cortez from calling the Daily Caller "completely disgusting."[5]
In a follow-up article about the photo incident, Rothstein wrote, "The photo first appeared Sunday on Reddit.
Horribly, it was called "MOMMY's TITTIES ON THE FAUCET."
The evil pranksters then tried to make it seem like it was a post on Ocasio-Cortez’s own Instagram feed."[5]
Personal Life
Tributes
Olivia Nuzzi, a political reporter for New York (magazine), wrote a tribute to Rothstein, whom she described as a friend and "a professional thorn in the side of Washington media figures." According to Nuzzi, Rothstein looked at politics with a light, amused eye:
However, Nuzzi also described Rothstein as handling her battle with cancer with admirable grit and good humor:
But then she could find the humor in anything.
There was a piano in the lobby of one of the hospitals, one of those pianos that plays itself.
The comically grim suggestion was that a ghost was performing for the waiting room, for the people terrified they’d soon be ghosts themselves.
Tucker Carlson’s tribute to Rothstein was also complimentary, describing her as "the most honest person" he’d ever met. "Betsy went into journalism because she wanted to tell the truth," he said. He said that she didn’t change the way she did her job in the 30 years she did it and he also described his last moments with her:
A few weeks ago, I went to visit her.
She was at her brother Joel’s house, where she’d been living since the hospital sent her home.
We both knew it was the last time we’d see each other in this life.
We sat in the living room all morning, holding hands, saying prayers, often in silence.
Betsy was tired.
Her beloved spaniel Whiskey slept in her lap.
Just before I left, she lifted her head and looked at me directly.
Her eyes were clear.
I asked her what she’d been thinking.
“Nothing is definite,” she said.
You think you know what’s going to happen in life.
But you don’t.
Eddie Scarry, The Washington Examiner contributor, wrote an article named "Betsy Rothstein, you'll be missed":
I really liked Betsy, and fortunately for me, she liked me, too.
I got to meet her mother.
When Betsy traveled, I took care of her dog, Whiskey.
Sometimes, she just gave him to me because I wanted what I called "dog therapy."
I'm lucky to have known her, as was everyone in her life.
I'll miss her, but if I had the chance to see her again, I know we'd both laugh at length while she tells me how I made this about me.[9]
CNN reporter Nathan McDermott, part of the liberal network's K-FILE investigative unit, shocked media peers when he attempted to politicize Rothstein's death. "I didn't know Betsy Rothstein and only read her occasionally, and I am sad that she passed away, but there's clearly a divide in values political journalists hold when (almost) everybody mourning her online is a white reporter who covers DC," McDermott wrote. "And I do appreciate the irony that occurs when provocateurs who disdain sanctimony die and people get outraged when you don't say they were perfect," McDermott added in a follow-up tweet. McDermott was immediately criticized on Twitter for the remarks. Many of Rothstein's friends and colleagues used colorful language to express how they felt. The Daily Caller told the CNN reporter to "do us all a favor and log off forever," while others expressed disbelief.[10]
CNN executive Matt Dornic even responded on Twitter that he "doesn’t support" McDermott’s tweet. "I’m grieving my friend right now. All I'm asking is that you don’t generalize it as a CNN position," Dornic wrote. He also wrote a tribute to Rothstein in CNN's media newsletter, calling her "fearless, fanatical and funny" while noting that D.C. "feels a lot darker" without her.[10]