Alabama’s WKRG News 5 reports that they received from a viewer what may be a robocall offering money for damaging information about Roy Moore:

“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 $5000 and $7000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at [email protected], thank you.”

Pastor Moore says he’s baffled about who might be behind the message.  He said he sent a response to the email address provided but it came back undeliverable.  We also tried the email address with the same result.

WKRG is labeling this a robocall but so far only one person is known to have received it and that person is named Al Moore. So is this something that went to a bunch of people or is it a prank call directed to people with the last name Moore. Your guess is as good as mine.

What does seem clear is that this was intended as a commentary on the Washington Post which published accusations last week that Roy Moore, as a 32-year-old, had approached and dated several teenagers, one of whom was 14 at the time. The Post sent a statement to WKRG saying:

The Post has just learned that at least one person in Alabama has received a call from someone falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post. The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.

For the record, a spokesman for Moore denied knowing anything about this. I believe that because you’d have to be a complete idiot to be involved with something like this. Is there any interpretation of the name “Bernie Bernstein” in this context that isn’t an anti-Semitic dog whistle? Lots of people having fun with alternate fake names on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/930564911029280769

I'm surprised they didn't go with "Shlomo Jewgold" instead of the infinitely more subtle "Bernie Bernstein." https://t.co/a2drNUYm4F

— Jeff B., who on earth is this guy?? (@EsotericCD) November 14, 2017

I always thought @washingtonpost made a mistake by giving Bernie Bernstein the Alabama desk instead of Shlomo Meshuga, who earned it

— IncitementToResurrectionHat (@Popehat) November 14, 2017

It’s the subtlety of Bernie Bernstein I appreciate. pic.twitter.com/Kdn920saRT

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) November 14, 2017

“Hello. It is The Jews. We have money. We would like to eat your Christian candidate with our Passover matzo. Please telephone us.” https://t.co/VaR5eo86MK

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 14, 2017

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out this was a one-off prank by a morning zoo crew at some local radio station. If this really is a robo-call then this race has gotten even uglier than I thought.