Bizarre robocall asks Alabama resident for 'damaging' information on Roy Moore
If you live in Alabama and receive a call from someone calling himself Bernie Bernstein, tell him you'd rather hear from Woody Woodward and hang up — it's a scam.
Pastor Al Moore from Creola shared with WKRG a strange voicemail message he recently received, left by a robocaller. "Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I'm a reporter for The Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5,000 and $7,000," the person said, in what sounded like an exaggerated fake New York accent. "We will not be fully investigating these claims, however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at albernstein@washingtonpost.com. Thank you."
Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama, has been accused by several women of making sexual advances on them when they were teens and he was in his early 30s. Al Moore, who did not tell WKRG if he is any relation to Roy, said he sent an email to the address given, but it bounced back. John Rogers of the Roy Moore campaign told WKRG this was the first he had heard of the robocall, and had no idea who was behind it. In a statement, the Post's executive editor, Marty Baron, said the man claiming to be Bernie Bernstein is, to no one's surprise, a fraud. "The call's description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality," he added. "We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism." Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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