Posted on 01/19/2019 7:16:58 AM PST by Kaslin
Friday night, the Special Counsel’s office released an extremely rare statement that took a buzz saw to BuzzFeed News’s Thursday night bombshell that alleged President Trump directed former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about possible construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow. In the statement, a Mueller spokesman called it “not accurate.”
Despite the fact that the BuzzFeed News story was not confirmed by — well — any news outlet from when it was first published to the statement from Mueller’s team, the broadcast networks devoted 27 minutes and 33 second on their Friday morning and evening newscasts (minus opening teases) to a story that, for lack of a better term, has been sunk.
All three networks pointed to the questionable veracity of the BuzzFeed piece by Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold to some degree, but each still gave it coverage with two dithering away over 10 minutes each.
ABC led the way with 10 minutes and 32 seconds between Good Morning America and World News Tonight. Close behind was NBC, which had 10 minutes and five seconds during NBC Nightly News and Today on the Cohen claims. NBC had the longest uninterrupted span with a portion of Today’s coverage going uninterrupted for six minutes and 33 seconds.
In third place and showing the most restraint was CBS. On CBS This Morning and the CBS Evening News, they combined for only six minutes and 56 seconds of BuzzFeed coverage.
Just before 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Office of the Special Counsel spokesman Peter Carr released this statement, sending the media (and Twitter) on all sides into a frenzy: “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.”
Earlier in the evening, our friend Amber Athey at the Daily Caller found that CNN and MSNBC combined to use the word “impeach” (and its variations) regarding the implication of the BuzzFeed News story being, well, accurate, “nearly 200 times on Friday” during their respective “original Friday programming....up until each network learned that BuzzFeed’s report was in dispute — shortly before 8 pm.”
When broken down, Athey found that “CNN mentioned impeachment 82 times while MSNBC mentioned it a whopping 97 times.”
CNN’s Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter and his fellow media cheerleader were beside themselves on Friday night, seeking to point fingers at BuzzFeed instead of, in addition to BuzzFeed, themselves for running the story.
Don’t fall for what these politicians out there want you to do. They want you to think we are all crooked, we’re not, but BuzzFeed now — but now, BuzzFeed — now, the onus is on BuzzFeed, right? The onus is now on BuzzFeed. Ben Smith says he knows the identity of the two sources. Obviously, the reporters know the identity of the two sources. They’re going to be going back to those two sources and hopefully to other sources to try to get to the bottom of this. Now, it’s a dispute and I don’t know how that dispute’s going to be resolved....This will be used, obviously against the media as a whole. But I hope we can see past that and be smarter than that. I hope the President doesn’t guide everybody else to use it against the press.
So while Stelter and like-minded individuals may offer spin trying to condemn those making a broader point about the press’s credibility, the facts speak for themselves.
Whether it’s stories like those promulgated by Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, Dan Rather, Class Relotius, Brian Williams, or those my colleague Rich Noyes and I outlined over a year ago, the media inflict far more damage to themselves and their credibility than almost anything the President tweets or any single piece of research put out about their biases.
Unfortunately, the press have largely proven themselves incapable of this realization.
The filthy bastards who promoted that lie should be sent to iran or somalia. Give them a choice.
“Originally known for online quizzes, “listicles” and pop culture articles, the company has grown into a global media and technology company”
Buzzfeed is a crap troll site and always has been
F-the Hollywood Red
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed
It doesn’t matter that it was a lie because it’s out there and people believe whatever CNN tells them.
CNN’s “excuse” is that they are just reporting what someone ELSE has claimed.
They all knew it was nothing but a pile of Hillary Droppings
Someone might be in trouble. I heard their mandated quota was 30 minutes with Sunday talk shows included.
That’s right. A bunch of Bull Obama.
“Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, Dan Rather, Class Relotius, Brian Williams, or those my colleague Rich Noyes and I outlined over a year ago, the media inflict far more damage to themselves and their credibility than almost anything the President tweets or any single piece of research put out about their biases. “
The didn’t mention that great fiction writer,Mike Barnicle.
.
Media is obsessed with Trump. Most sensible people think the media has gone nuts.
Nor did they remember CNN film faker Peter Arnett, or 'Al Qeada freedom fighter' advocate Ashley Banfield.
Sickening——and they keep them employed and pay them really big bucks.
.
The morning moron on WVNN, Huntsville, Al has spent several hours.
What ever happened to Brian Ross ?
Presstitutes
The media run by lyin’ sobs.
CNN’s “excuse” is that they are just reporting what someone ELSE has claimed.
/////////////////////////////////////
C’mon. Journalist integrity of their code of ethics states they can’t just print or say on the air “Joe Smith, the prominent banker is secretly a street drug user who chases young girls according a source who wishes to remain anonymous.” No defense.
We could say we heard that several people knew Hillary destroyed Rose Law Firm records, took money-laundered foundation bribes to change State Dept. policies for foreign entities, and worked with illegally obtained surveillance and IRS records to blackmail enemies. All that was true but none stuck thanks to the media.
So far.
Now they suddenly trust any internet source they see? BS
Buzzfeed is reporting that Joe Smith...
“Maxine Waters says ‘Trump has...’”
“Find someone who says what you legally cannot claim yourself.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.