Some members of the media, who for the most part have been special counsel Robert Mueller’s “willing accomplices,” seemed almost peeved at him Friday for having disputed their reporting.
“Muller didn’t do the media any favors tonight and he did do the president one,” CNN host Chris Cuomo complained after the special counsel’s office released an unexpected statement early Friday evening pushing back against dubious claims by BuzzFeed that President Donald Trump had once ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.
“This allows them [Trump and his allies] to say, ‘You can’t believe it, you can’t believe what you read, you can’t believe what you hear, you can only believe us. Even the special counsel says that the media doesn’t get it right.'”
But whose fault is that?
Listen to Cuomo griping below:
Ever since Trump stepped into the White House in January of 2017, the media have been forced to issue dozens and dozens of retractions, all of them pertaining to negative stories about him.
The way it works is that some major media outlet such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post or BuzzFeed runs a salacious story based on anonymous sources accusing the president and/or his campaign officials of committing criminal acts of some sort.
Two years ago Cuomo’s own employer, CNN, ran a report accusing the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. of essentially colluding with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election. The report was later learned to be entirely false.
That same year ABC News ran a report that accused the president of having ordered former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to contact certain Russian operatives after the 2016 election but before the early 2007 inauguration. That report too turned out to be totally false.
And so did a report run by BuzzFeed late Thursday evening that accused the president of having ordered his then-attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress in 2017. Had this report been true, Democrats would have been able to impeach the president on obstruction of justice.
But as usual, the report turned out to be false:
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the special counsel is disputing BuzzFeed News’ report. https://t.co/BEoMKiDypn pic.twitter.com/GWWfGtyhaE
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) January 19, 2019
“Inside the Justice Department, the statement was viewed as a huge step, and one that would have been taken only if the special counsel’s office viewed the story as almost entirely incorrect,” The Washington Post reported. “The special counsel’s office seemed to be disputing every aspect of the story that addressed comments or evidence given to its investigators.”
Yet prior to the release of this statement, every single mainstream media outlet — including those outlets with their own history of retractions — ran with BuzzFeed’s report as if the allegations contained within it were facts.
So again, whose fault is it that the media now looks even less credible than before?
“My view is the larger message that a lot of people are going to take from this story is that the news media are a bunch of leftist liars who are dying to get the president and they’re willing to lie to do it,” Cuomo’s colleague, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, complained earlier Friday evening.
“And I don’t think that’s true,” he added, signaling that he too is displeased with Mueller’s announcement.
Listen:
“I just think this is a bad day for us. I just think it reinforces every bad stereotype about the news media,” he continued.
Again, whose fault is that?
According to social media, it’s the media’s fault:
What does he mean “from this story…?” EVERY story Jeffrey!
— Allen Cliff (@BIG_AL_08) January 19, 2019
“It reinforces every bad stereotype about the news media.” Er, if it happens regularly, which it does, it’s not a stereotype — it’s the norm.
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) January 19, 2019
Everyday is a bad day when you have bad journalism and it has been bad for quite some time. Journalists and editors no longer seek proof, only confirmation bias, Toobin et al is no better
— Jeff Kiser (@1962Kiser) January 19, 2019
Today is not much different than everyday of the past two years.
— Steph (@steph93065) January 19, 2019
Today is not much different than everyday of the past two years.
— Steph (@steph93065) January 19, 2019
Have to check it out. I put nothing past them! It’s why I crack up when the left cries about how @POTUS is influencing his supporters to not trust the media. Ah, no! We support him cuz we’ve known for decades they are the enemy of the people & FINALLY someone is fighting back!
— It’s Me (@elephants1996) January 19, 2019
Don’t worry, we picked up on the fact that the leftist media was willing to lie to get President Trump, long before the fake Buzzfeed story.
— Writer, CR HIATT⭐⭐⭐ (@CR_HIATT) January 19, 2019
The latter tweet is correct. Distrust in the mainstream media has been inching upward since the era of former President Barack Hussein Obama, when the same media that now seems to spend every waking moment bashing the president instead spent every moment praising and defending the then-president.
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Vivek@bizpacreview.com
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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