Bizarre robocall asks Alabama resident for 'damaging' information on Roy Moore

Pastor Al Moore's cell phone.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/WKRG)

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

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.