Director of Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab says Squi - Chris Garrett - needs a lot more attention [View all]

[highplainsdem]

Twitter thread from Joshua Benton starting here:

Link to tweet

Am I mistaken, or has no reporter been able to get even a "no comment" from Chris Garrett?


Restraint in not using his name was admirable when his main role in the case seemed to be Guy Who Ed Whelan Falsely Called a Likely Attempted Rapist.

But that's not his main role anymore! He's the *friend of Kavanaugh's* who *dated Ford* that summer AND was at the July 1 party!


When Kavanaugh is claiming to have no idea who Ford is, he was hanging out all the time with HER BOYFRIEND throughout the summer of 1982! (Kavanaugh testified that Chris Garrett is the "Squi" in the famous July 1 calendar entry.)


(I should note maybe "boyfriend" is too strong. Ford testified Thursday that she "went out with [Garrett] for a few months" but wasn't "dating" him. I leave the analysis of 1980s teen relationship labeling to others.)


As @joshtpm has argued, he's the nexus of the whole shebang.

But again, I don't think reporters have gotten even a "no comment" from him.


As far as I can tell, @nytimes hasn't used his name in any story. (The recent "kavanaugh garrett" stories here refer to Garrett Ventry, the Senate committee aide who resigned.) https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=kavanaugh+garrett …


Kavanaugh on Thurs even *testified* that in the summer of 1982, he spent a weekend at Garrett's house! Again, Garrett & Ford were in some stage of dating, going out for *multiple months* — and Kavanaugh didn't know the girl of his sleepover bud was dating?https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/us/politics/read-brett-kavanaughs-complete-opening-statement.html …


And yet we don't seem (again correct me if I'm wrong!) to have so much as a "no comment" from him. His local paper in Atlanta, the @ajc, has never even mentioned the guy who is the local angle for the biggest story in the country right now!


Kavanaugh testified Ford "and I did not travel in the same social circles. It’s possible we met at some point at some events, although I do not recall that." Again, Garrett, who Ford was seeing in some form for months, was one of his best friends, at least based on his calendars,


(If you think "have no idea who Ford was" is too strong, fine — if you want to sub in "says he never remembers meeting her, went to a school I didn't hang out with, and was not in the same social circles as me," feel free.)


There's been lots of focus on the July 1 entry on Kavanaugh's calendar, for good reason. But Garrett is ALL OVER that summer's calendars. I didn't count them all up, but I think his name may appear more than any other friend's that summer. (If not, it's close.)


On May 2, Kavanaugh goes to a Bullets game with Garrett. On June 12, Kavanaugh spends the night at Garrett's beach house in Rehoboth. On June 13, Kavanaugh sees Rocky III with Garrett.


On June 25, Kavanaugh goes to a party at a boathouse with Garrett. On June 26, Kavanaugh goes to see Poltergeist with Garrett. On July 1, of course, Kavanaugh had "skis" with Garrett. On July 2 and 3, Kavanaugh went to the beach with Garrett.


On July 30, Kavanaugh went to the beach with Garrett. On August 3, Kavanaugh goes to an Orioles doubleheader with Garrett. On August 15, Kavanaugh goes to the beach again with Garrett.


(Correction to that, August 14, not 15. Twitter needs an edit button.)


On August 19, Kavanaugh...does something with Garrett, I can't read his handwriting. On August 20-22, Kavanaugh sleeps over at Garrett's house. He referred to that weekend in his testimony.


I show all that to make it clear Garrett was not an acquaintance — he was a very close friend. And again, Ford specifically cited Garrett, the man Ed Whelan falsely fingered, as the guy she was dating and who was her connection to Kavanaugh.


As far as I can tell, the only word we have from Garrett about all this is the statement his lawyer put out after Ed Whelan falsely accused him. "He has no knowledge or information relating to her claims" and "will not be making any further statements regarding this matter."


(And again, maybe "dating" isn't the right word, I wasn't there, but "going out with regularly over a period of months" seems to be.)


Anyway, I have no idea what Garrett knows or doesn't know! But he should be getting a lot of journalistic attention right now. /fin

Joshua Benton's journalism background:

http://www.niemanlab.org/author/jbenton/

Joshua Benton is director of the Nieman Journalism Lab. Before spending a year at Harvard as a 2008 Nieman Fellow, he spent a decade in newspapers, most recently at The Dallas Morning News. His reports on cheating on standardized tests in the Texas public schools led to the permanent shutdown of a school district and won the Philip Meyer Journalism Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. He has reported from 10 foreign countries, been a Pew Fellow in International Journalism, and three times been a finalist for the Livingston Award for International Reporting. Before Dallas, he was a reporter and occasional rock critic for The Toledo Blade. He wrote his first HTML in January 1994.