Conservative radio host Dan Bongino became the focus of the rumor mill Sunday when Politico reported he was “forcibly removed” from a Florida restaurant, and it is a story that perfectly illustrates how one should take everything the mainstream media reports with an elephant-sized grain of salt.
On June 25, Politico reported in its “Playbook” report — its daily round up of news snippets — that Bongino, who is constantly targeted by leftists, was removed from a restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday evening.
“SPOTTED,” Politico wrote in its report, “conservative media personality and former Fox News host Dan Bongino getting forcibly removed from Cucina Palm Beach by several restaurant employees close to midnight on Friday.”
Politico linked to a photo showing the former Fox New host behind several other men in what is obviously a rush out the door of the establishment.
SPOTTED: conservative media personality and former Fox News host Dan Bongino getting forcibly removed from Cucina Palm Beach by several restaurant employees close to midnight on Friday. https://t.co/IA9jwYODLM pic.twitter.com/PVyYc7Nvhe
— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) June 25, 2023
“Asked for comment,” Politico added, “Bongino texted Daniel Lippman: ‘That’s an absolutely FASCINATING take on what really happened. Does Politico support physical violence against women? You’ll have to tune in to my podcast on Monday for the real story.'”
With its final words, Politico tried to allude to Bongino drinking that night, saying, “Bongino, who had earlier ordered bottle service at Cucina, didn’t respond to a follow-up question asking how ‘physical violence against women’ related to him getting thrown out of a restaurant. Cucina didn’t respond to a request for comment.”
Soon enough, other outlets picked up on the story and made Bongino out to be some raging alcoholic who got engaged in a fight at the eatery.
Left-wing media website Mediaite, for instance, crowed, “Conservative firebrand Dan Bongino was photographed over the weekend as he seemed to be thrown out of an Italian restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida.”
Among others, Raw Story claimed “Ex-Fox host Dan Bongino caught being thrown out of Palm Beach restaurant.” And OK Magazine insisted, “Conservative star Dan Bongino seemed to be thrown out of an Italian restaurant in Palm Beach, Fla., over the weekend, according to a news outlet.”
Only British news outlet The Daily Mail bothered to look into the story to get a more accurate account of what happened and waited to publish until Bongino spoke publicly. And, it turns out that Dan Bongino was not thrown out of the restaurant at all. It turns out that restaurant management claimed Bongino’s wife, Paula, was “waiting in the wrong bathroom line” and they ejected her.
Indeed, that explanation makes more sense when viewing the photo that Politico’s Lippman published, because the photo does seem to show that Dan is standing off to the side, away from the person actually being pushed out the door. The photo does not seem to be a photo of Bongino himself being ejected by anyone.
“Former Fox host Dan Bongino has claimed his wife was dragged out of a glitzy Palm Beach Italian restaurant on Friday night for waiting in the wrong line for the restroom,” the Mail reported.
“The pro-Trump podcast host, 48, said his wife Paula was ‘UFC-style’ removed from Cucina Palm Beach by an employee after enjoying a night out for his friend’s birthday,” the paper said.
The Mail added that Bongino said that the bottle service mentioned by Politico was for the table full of friends, not just him, and he picked up the tab. So, as they were preparing to leave, he went to settle the bill. Then he saw a ruckus erupt out of the corner of his eye. He said a man was “bear hugging” a woman and carrying her out of the restaurant.
He later realized it was his wife, after seeing the bracelet she was wearing.
Bongino, who is not shy about returning fire, opened his podcast on Monday noting that one should wait 24 hours before commenting on a story in order to get the facts, and blasted the media for perpetrating “fake news” over the restaurant incident.
“I wasn’t thrown out of anywhere. I just want to be clear about that,” Bongino told his audience.
But he also explained how the “fake news” works.
“So this is the genesis of how fake news works,” Bongino said at the top of his show Monday. He went on to say that he told the Politico reporter, “You can wait. I’ll tell the story on my show when I have a few minutes.”
“Of course, he couldn’t wait,” Bongino added before saying that, sure enough, on Sunday morning there was the story, framed in the lie he was “forcibly removed” from the establishment.
“Now the story’s set, that I was ‘forcibly removed’ — now keep this in mind, none of this is actually true. But that doesn’t stop them from going through. Now, this is the text I sent back to him: ‘You’ll have to tune in to my podcast Monday for the real story.’ But because they can’t wait, and the fake news people have to put out a click-bait story, they have to get the narrative out early.”
“You see how this works? You guys all catching it?” he asked. “The story’s gotta be I did something that I was forcibly removed for. … But did you notice they never tell you why I was ‘forcibly removed’?”
“But because they want the story out that the conservative guy was forcibly removed, it sets the [narrative], now they can all report on this,” he said. “So, you see how it sprouts like a Chia pet?”
Bongino noted that all these fake news stories lead by saying he was “reportedly” removed from the bar, all based on the false characterization first put out by Politico. And then everyone else just runs with the lie without bothering to actually investigate the story. Indeed, Mediaite was so off base, it initially claimed the restaurant was in Miami, when it is actually in Palm Beach, before correcting its story.
“Folks, it’s not what happened at all. I was not thrown out,” he said, warning that he might take actions against the media for the lies.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
