Russian Collusion and the Death of Journalism We utilized to…
Russian Collusion and the Death of Journalism
We utilized to trust the mainstream media. They reported the truths and let us make our own choices about the concerns of the day. If credibility is the lifeblood of journalism, the mainstream media is dead.
It devoted suicide. We understand the approximate date of its demise.
2016. We understand the cause. The desertion of objectivity.
We even understand the technique of the suicide: the complete involvement in a conspiracy to ruin a political candidate and after that, ultimately, his presidency. This is not just my judgment, it’s the judgment
of the most prominent publication in the field of journalism, the Columbia Journalism Review. In January of 2023, the Review released a twenty-six-thousand-word, four-part investigation into the conspiracy commonly referred to as Russiagate. It was composed by Jeff Gerth, a highly concerned, former New York Times press reporter with years of experience. Gerth concluded that practically every significant claim in the Russiagate narrative was false. Let’s step back and consider what this indicates. For some 5 years, the mainstream media– the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN– fed a grotesque lie to the general public: that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to overturn an American election. We’re talking about lots of news organizations and hundreds of reporters operating in performance
to spread out fictitious claims in thousands upon countless news posts, TV sections, podcasts, and viewpoint pieces. Provided Gerth’s track record and that of the Columbia Journalism Review, the post must have been front-page news and led every TV news program. It didn’t. Offered Gerth’s conclusions, you would expect the media would participate in major soul-searching.
It didn’t.
The media that served as the stenographer of the conspiracy merely disregarded Gerth’s report.
In short, they lied and then covered up their lies with silence. Even Gerth, a veteran newsman, was surprised.
One can only question what these” newsroom leaders “would have informed him. The photo that emerges from Gerth’s investigation is a morass of malfeasance, greased by naked aspiration and ideological bias.
The so-called” Steele Dossier “with its lurid accusations that Donald Trump had close ties to Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence was a collection of unsourced fabrications, cut and pasted together by a Trump-hating previous British spy working for and paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign. The story that the Trump Organization was secretly linked to computer systems at a Russian financial institution called Alfa-Bank: another complete fiction,
this one concocted by Clinton campaign lawyers. The allegation that Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, peripheral and early foreign policy advisors to the Trump project, were Russian agents.
Possibly even worse was how these fictions were typically pitched to the public. Working with the FBI( or some other government entity ), the media would release an allegation of Trump-Russia collusion. The FBI would then look into the story; the media would report the FBI’s curiosity and suggest that if the FBI was interested there must be something to it.
If trustworthiness is the lifeline of journalism, the mainstream media is dead. Provided Gerth’s track record and that of the Columbia Journalism Review, the article must have been front-page news and led every TV news program. Offered Gerth’s conclusions, you would anticipate the media would engage in serious soul-searching.
Working with the FBI( or some other government entity ), the media would release an accusation of Trump-Russia collusion. The FBI would then look into the story; the media would report the FBI’s curiosity and suggest that if the FBI was interested there must be something to it.
