Trending Now

‘Brian Williams’ trends in debate over journos ‘making stuff up’ after sketchy Atlantic story fail

September 6, 2020 | | Print Article

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE.

MSNBC host Brian Williams began trending on social media Sunday as users debated the lack of merit in an anonymously sourced story by The Atlantic claiming President Donald Trump made disparaging comments about American war dead and the late Sen. John McCain.

Last week, a story by The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg allegedly based on four anonymous sources claimed that, among other things, the president once referred to World War I soldiers and Marines as “losers” and “suckers.”

That claim seemed totally out of step and character for a president who has gone out of his way to thank, praise, and take care of the U.S. military.

The story also claimed that Trump shunned a visit in 2018 to a World War I cemetery in France where American dead were buried because the trip would mess his hair up. And, the alleged sources said the president was angry and frustrated at having to accommodate and honor the late John McCain (R-Ariz.) following his death from brain cancer two years ago.

But the veracity of the claims in the story, the alleged sources, and Goldberg himself were immediately attacked by a number of conservative journalists, as well as current and former Trump administration officials who said they were with the president in France and none of what he was accused of saying and doing actually happened.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1301906064665980931

In addition, documents obtained via Freedom Of Information Act requests proved that the president’s trip was canceled by then-Chief of Staff John Kelly because of inclement weather.

Others, however, jumped to Goldberg’s defense when it appeared the AP, the Washington Post, FOX News correspondent Jennifer Griffin appeared to corroborate the claims and the sources.

But in fact, all of those outlets merely supported the anonymous sources — they didn’t name them or confirm their identities in any way, or their alleged connection to the administration and the president.

Griffin was singled out for extra criticism by the president himself, who called for her to be fired after he pointed out that she had not confirmed the most salacious allegations at all and never contacted the White House for comment.

In comments on social media Sunday, The Federalist’s senior editor and FOX News contributor Mollie Hemingway cited an “information operation” was underway to continue pushing the narrative despite the fact that no one has stepped forward to claim ownership of the comments.

“The only thing that would be ‘confirmed’ is that an anonymous information operation is going on. Which was already known when the first story ran. It does not ‘confirm’ the narrative the anon operation is attempting to push, obviously, just repeats it,” she wrote in response to someone who was defending the story.

“And this is obvious but even if one of the members of the info op put their name to their claims, they are disputed by a large number of on-the-record officials, government docs, and tons of photographic evidence of Trump with disabled vets,” she added.

As for Williams, he was suspended from his position as anchor of “NBC Nightly News” in February 2015 for lying about coming under fire while riding in a U.S. military helicopter covering the war in Iraq in 2003. He was summarily fired from that post in June and then demoted to his late-night anchor position on MSNBC.

As the debate over the lack of corroboration for Goldberg’s story and its heavy reliance on alleged anonymous sources raged online, Williams’ name began trending.

“Brian Williams agrees, therefore it’s definitely true,” conservative podcaster and FOX News contributor Dan Bongino wrote in response to an education reporter who claimed, “journalists don’t just make stuff up.”

https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1302599873892626432

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

$10
$15
$25
$50
Other
$
Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Jon Dougherty
Latest posts by Jon Dougherty (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles