The New Republic71%
Pirro Reveals Reflecting Pool Indictment of U.S. Olympian Is a Sham 67%
By Hafiz Rashid69%
7/2/2026, 8:54:44 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Negativity Bias, and Burden of Proof, with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 47.8% saturation with 174 hits. Analysis detected 1,361 faulty-reasoning hits from 364 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 60.7% and a BS Rank of 67% (6,915 of 20,515 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 66.30% of the article peer group.
U.S.
Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Thursday that a grand jury had indicted former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on charges of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The indictment seems rather flawed, as Hearn, 67, maintains that all he did was dip his hand into the pool and touch a piece of peeling paint.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told The Washington Post the day after his arrest last month.
“I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything.
By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
At a press conference Thursday, a reporter asked Pirro why Hearn was being charged with a felony over something so small, and she struggled to explain.
“There was an effort, a violent effort, to rip up the sealant from the pool, and irrespective of whether or not we think that there is some situation that preceded it, we can state, and prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that he caused damage, and that damage is worth over a thousand dollars,” Pirro said.
When asked how she could prove that, Pirro said, “With an expert,” and urged the reporter who asked the question to come to the trial.
The reporter incredulously asked if Hearn used his bare hands, to which Pirro affirmed yes, both hands.
The reporter then asked if the pool wasn’t already damaged before.
“Oh, he damaged it.
He damaged the pool.
He damaged this pool,” Pirro repeated.
When the reporter brought up videos showing that the pool’s paint was already peeling, Pirro said, “Well, good.
I’m glad you got that evidence.
Come on in the grand jury and you can testify.”
It all seems nuts, as the poor state of the pool, from algae growth to peeling paint, had been documented for quite some time before Hearn visited it.
The paint had been peeling because hydrogen peroxide was dumped into the pool in a vain effort to kill algae growth.
Hearn is clearly being made a scapegoat to satisfy President Donald Trump, who is blaming nonexistent vandals rather than admit he messed up the pool.
Speakers
2speakers54%attributed speech167writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageJeanine Pirro
158 attributed words80% of attributed speech99% writer coverage
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Analysis
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