Chatterbox

Whopper of the Week: Charles Robertson

“I am not a racist.”

Charles Robertson, mayor of York, Pa., at a press conference prior to his being arrested on a charge of criminal homicide in connection with the death of a black woman named Lillie Belle Allen during the city’s 1969 riots, as reported in the May 18 York Daily Record.

“York Mayor Charlie Robertson took it back Thursday. Of course, he said, he regrets saying ‘white power’ at a 1969 rally, a day before Lillie Belle Allen was murdered.

“‘Absolutely I regret it,’ he said. ‘Look at what it’s caused me. I was honest enough to say that I said it to begin with.’

“Twice the day before he had told reporters he did not regret his ‘white power’ statement made 32 years ago. Thursday, he said he had felt overwhelmed by the media and was unable to follow all the questions.”

–”Mayor Admits Regrets,” by Andrew Broman in the May 4 York Daily Record.

Got a whopper? Send it to  chatterbox@slate.com. To be considered, an entry must be an unambiguously false statement paired with an unambiguous refutation, and both must be derived from some appropriately reliable public source. Preference will be given to newspapers and other documents that Chatterbox can link to online.

Whopper Archive:

May 11, 2001: Ted Olson

May 4, 2001: Rear Admiral Craig Quigley

April 27, 2001: Ben Affleck

April 20, 2001: South Carolina state legislator Chip Limehouse

April 13, 2001: Gray Davis

April 6, 2001: Sumner Redstone

March 30, 2001: Spencer Abraham

March 23, 2001: George W. Bush, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, and/or the Treasury Department

March 16, 2001: George W. Bush

March 9, 2001: Russ Freyman, spokesman, National Association of Manufacturers

March 2, 2001: Paul O’Neill

Feb. 23, 2001: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Feb. 16, 2001: Oscar spokesman John Pavlik

Feb. 9, 2001: Lynne Cheney

Feb. 2, 2001: Bobby Thomson

Jan 26, 2001: Denise Rich