Journalists ought to be free to make whatever partisan arguments they wish, but it would be illuminating for the public to see just how connected these media figures are behind the scenes, how they happily lap up “leaks” from the Democrats that then lead, in a circular fashion, to stories the same Democrats can point to as evidence that where there’s smoke there’s fire, which is how the FISA warrants on the Trump campaign/Russia topic were ginned up. It’s not a very fun game of telephone when the government can use wiretaps and leaks.
And just as journalists should be free to express their opinions about us, so should we enjoy the right to speak freely about them. After all, a free press doesn’t mean a press free from criticism. For an industry built around collecting the scalps of others, they sure seem to have thin skins. It isn’t “attacking the press” to demand that it act responsibly.
When President Trump criticizes professional eye-roller and amateurish CNN host Don Lemon for his intellect, Lemon responds by playing the race card. How original. Lemon’s CNN colleague Chris Cuomo, upon being confronted as a hypocrite for leaving the house while carrying coronavirus, called the passing citizen who caught him a “fat biker loser.”
MSNBC host Joy Reid couldn’t explain homophobic posts on her blog, so she blamed hackers without evidence. When even worse comments were found, blaming the U.S. government for conducting the 9/11 attacks, she talked about her subsequent personal growth. I’m glad Joy has grown. But if she were a conservative, she’d be growing off-air. MSNBC awarding her a new nightly show is remarkable only for the double standard it reveals.
Glenn Greenwald writes for the Intercept and other outlets and is no Trump supporter. Indeed he’s a socialist and often criticizes the U.S.’ supposed imperialism in Latin America. But he sees the way more mainstream media develop a herd mentality, in particular when they go after Trump.
In a May 18, 2020, piece, he praised New York Times’ media columnist Ben Smith for criticizing another figure usually lauded by the Left, journalist Ronan Farrow (“Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?”). Smith showed how Farrow’s journalistic standards suffered when he went after alleged sexual harassers targeted by the #MeToo movement—that is, when he was concerned with being “good,” his work was slightly less likely to be true, or at the very least he didn’t strive as hard to verify details.
Smith mentions parallels with Trump’s journalist critics in that piece, and Greenwald seconds the observation:
What is particularly valuable about Smith’s article is its perfect description of a media sickness born of the Trump era that is rapidly corroding journalistic integrity and justifiably destroying trust in news outlets. Smith aptly dubs this pathology “resistance journalism,” by which he means that journalists are now not only free but encouraged and incentivized to say or publish anything they want, no matter how reckless and fact-free, provided their target is someone sufficiently disliked in mainstream liberal media venues and/or on social media.
If the cause is deemed just, in short, you can get away with saying almost anything you want, and the higher-ups aren’t going to punish you for it. Sound an off note—something that reveals your reporting is not being done on behalf of the team—and suddenly the media bosses may become very, very skeptical. Smith learned this himself when he published the fake Steele dossier as editor of BuzzFeed. Far from being drummed out of the profession, he was rewarded with a plum position at the Times.
Some figures in the media, on CNN in particular, seem to flourish only because they push the correct anti-Trump buttons. How is it possible that figures directly implicated in Trump-era controversies—and possibly in crimes instigated by the prior administration—are now deployed as impartial analysts telling viewers what to make of the latest Trump-related revelations? Are Jim Comey and Peter Strzok the future of the prime-time CNN lineup? It wouldn’t be that big a stretch.
Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was found by Inspector General Michael Horowitz to have lied four times, thrice under oath. Shockingly, he has not been indicted. Now he’s a CNN paid contributor. “Facts Matter” is a hard mantra to maintain when lies don’t matter to hiring.
Former DNI James Clapper lied to Congress about whether the National Security Agency routinely collects information from all Americans’ electronic communications, and he resigned upon Trump’s election. Today, he is a fixture on CNN, which apparently doesn’t worry that this man will lie to viewers. Following the release of Clapper’s testimony from the Intelligence Committee, we learned that he told one story on-air to please his CNN overlords and quite another when under oath.
Under Oath Clapper in 2017: “I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election…. I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence.”
CNN Clapper in May 2019: “The Trump campaign was aiding and abetting the Russians!”
Clapper’s Obama-era wingman, former CIA director John Brennan, changed his story when he wasn’t accountable for lying. “President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash,” Brennan wrote for a willfully duped New York Times.
But under oath in 2017, Brennan said, “I don’t know whether or not such collusion—that’s your term—such collusion existed. I don’t know…. I don’t have sufficient information to make a determination whether or not such cooperation or complicity or collusion was taking place.” You didn’t see that version of Brennan on TV. It’s not what Zucker wanted to hear.
Clapper, Brennan, and McCabe still have paid contributorships. CNN hasn’t apologized to their viewers, as they should. But you can’t shame the shameless.
Apparently, few things short of ending up in a Miami Beach hotel with a rented male nurse, meth, a disco ball, and erectile dysfunction injections will
