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Whopper of the Week: Charles Robertson

Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, May 18, 2001, at 12:02 PM ET

"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 . 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

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