One of the most mainstream media reporters in history (Jeff Gerth) just published a 4-part investigative series on the media’s serial failures on Russiagate, in one of the US’s most mainstream venues (@CJR), and the named culprits and outlets are all ignoring it. But not Boob Woodward, no friend to Trump.
Woodward scolded the media for ‘cheating’ the American public with the BS story and urged them to make amends by ‘walking down the painful road of introspection.’
Michael Shellenberger broke down the story but it is worth a read as it is devastating to the arrogant media complex in this country: “Before the 2016 election, most Americans trusted the traditional media and the trend was positive…Today, the US media has the lowest credibility—26 percent—among forty-six nations.” Russia collusion hoax had a lot to do with it.
“Bob Woodward, of the Post, told me that news coverage of the Russia inquiry ‘wasn’t handled well’ and that he thought viewers and readers had been “cheated.” He urged newsrooms to “walk down the painful road of introspection.’”
“It was Hillary, not Trump, who began her campaign facing scrutiny over Russia ties….including a lucrative speech in Moscow by Bill Clinton, Russia-related donations to the Clinton family foundation, and Russia-friendly initiatives by the Obama administration”
“By 2016, as Trump’s political viability grew and he voiced admiration for Russia’s “strong leader,” Clinton and her campaign would secretly sponsor and publicly promote an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that there was a secret alliance between Trump and Russia.”
In @CJR Bob Woodward tells Jeff Gerth the Russia probe “wasn’t handled well” & accuses mainstream press of having “cheated” public out of truth. Urges newsrooms to “walk down painful road of introspection” & review failures with Russia-collusion stories. https://t.co/21M6Y65wSb
— Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) February 1, 2023
“Paul Krugman, in his Times column, called Trump the “Siberian candidate,” citing the “watering down” of the platform. Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, labeled Trump a “de facto agent” of Putin.“
Matt Taibbi said the “more neutral approach” to reporting “went completely out the window once Trump got elected. Saying anything publicly about the story that did not align with the narrative—the repercussions were huge for any of us that did not go there. That is crazy.”
“Clinton was said to have approved a “proposal from one of her foreign-policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” according to notes, declassified in 2020, of a briefing CIA director John Brennan gave”
“Hamburger, of the Washington Post, told Simpson the Page allegations were found to be “bullshit” and “impossible” by the paper’s Moscow correspondent, according to court records.
But not everyone held back. In late September, Michael Isikoff, at Yahoo News, published”
“The Clinton campaign put out a statement on Twitter, linking to what it called the “bombshell report” on Yahoo, but did not disclose that the campaign secretly paid the researchers who pitched it to Isikoff.”
The author of the above is 78-year-old Jeff Gerth who won the Pulitzer and worked at the New York Times between 1976 and 2005.
Every sentence is well-sourced
It is a damning indictment of the U.S. news media
All four parts are grippinghttps://t.co/E7bTosCjpT
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 1, 2023
“It was a twist to the symbiotic relationship between the media and the national-security apparatus; usually, reporters use pending government action as a peg for their stories. In this case the government cited the media for its actions.” Scary.
Jonathan Karl, the ABC White House correspondent, … said the media coverage of Trump was “relentlessly and exhaustively negative,” rather than “striving for fairness and objectivity,” and did “as much to undermine the credibility of the free press as the president’s taunts.”
“Bob Woodward, appearing on Fox News, called the dossier a “garbage document” … later he said, “To be honest, there was a lack of curiosity on the part of the people at the Post about what I had said, why I said this, and I accepted that and I didn’t force it on anyone.”
The day before inauguration, the Times featured a story: “Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry into Trump.” The piece evoked a strong reaction from Strzok, who was leading FBI inquiry: “no substance and largely wrong…the press is going to undermine its credibility”
“It was a twist to the symbiotic relationship between the media and the national-security apparatus; usually, reporters use pending government action as a peg for their stories. In this case the government cited the media for its actions.”
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) January 31, 2023
After the election, “the Times produced a steady stream of stories about whether Trump conspired with Russians to win the election without knowing whether the allegation was actually true.”
“Gerard Baker, who was the Journal’s top editor at the time… says he found the performance by the media in the Trump-Russia saga, ‘for the most part,’ to be ‘among the most disturbing, dishonest, and tendentious I’ve ever seen.’”
The New Yorker’s “Jane Mayer, wrote a lengthy piece about Steele and his work. Then she went on Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC to note how the dossier “was looking better and better every day, more and more credible.”
“Woodward told me the Mueller report was a “fizzle” but reporters were ‘never going to declare it’s going to end up dry.’”
“In an interview, Wemple said he was “horrified” over media’s “devastating” portrayal of the dossier. ‘What most dismayed me was the failure of MSNBC and CNN to counter and properly address the questions I was asking them.” CNN, in November 2021, did a “reckoning”—of the dossier”
“I’ve avoided opining in my more than 50 years as a reporter. This time, however, I felt obligated to weigh in. Why? Because I am worried about journalism’s declining credibility & society’s increasing polarization.
“The two trends, I believe, are intertwined. My main conclusion is that journalism’s primary missions, informing the public and holding powerful interests accountable, have been undermined by the erosion of journalistic norms and the media’s own lack of transparency.
“One traditional journalistic standard that wasn’t always followed in the Trump-Russia coverage is the need to report facts that run counter to the prevailing narrative.
Jonathan Karl, the ABC White House correspondent, … said the media coverage of Trump was “relentlessly and exhaustively negative,” rather than “striving for fairness and objectivity,” and did “as much to undermine the credibility of the free press as the president’s taunts.”
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) January 31, 2023
“In January 2018, for example, the New York Times ignored a publicly available document showing that the FBI’s lead investigator didn’t think, after ten months of inquiry into possible Trump-Russia ties, that there was much there.
“I interviewed a former top CIA expert on behavior and propaganda, Jerrold Post, who told me that leaving important information out of a broadcast or story lowers public trust in the messenger because consumers inevitably find the missing information somewhere else.
“The author of the above is 78-year-old Jeff Gerth who won the Pulitzer and worked at the New York Times between 1976 and 2005. Every sentence is well-sourced. It is a damning indictment of the U.S. news media All four parts are gripping.”
Even though he worked in mainstream media outlets his whole life, even the now-retired Gerth seemed shocked at how arrogant and insular these failing institutions are. They just refused to answer questions about their Russiagate failures — exactly why, he says, they’re so hated: pic.twitter.com/F4vQM3fFSu
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 1, 2023
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