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The Media Has Some Apologizing to Do After the IG Report
Townhall.com ^ | December 14, 2019 | Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel

Posted on 12/14/2019 3:18:46 AM PST by Kaslin

Thanks to the Department of Justice Inspector General's report, we now know for certain what has been, for those paying attention, fairly obvious. The Steele dossier played a central role in the genesis of the Russia hoax and was used to justify extensive spying on former naval officer and Annapolis graduate Carter Page.

The top two leaders of the FBI were closely involved in this fiasco. Other powerful people knew what was happening and lied to cover it up. That all was confirmed by the IG report. The report was a disaster for the credibility of top leaders in Barack Obama's FBI, and it's also a big problem for the American news media.

For example, in early 2018, Washington Post intelligence and national security correspondent Shane Harris lectured Kim Strassel of The Wall Street Journal about how little she knows about the story.

"Yes," he wrote, "I am telling you the dossier was not used as the basis for a FISA warrant on Carter Page." That's false. And yet, Harris hasn't apologized or even acknowledged his incompetence.

Or take NBC News's so-called intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian. In the summer of 2018, he smugly tweeted, "Trump is wrong about Carter Page, the dossier and the FISA warrant." But it looks like Trump was right, and he was wrong.

CNN Newsroom anchor and chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto did admit the Steele dossier might have been used for the warrant. But don't be impressed. He lectured readers that "the FBI would corroborate information in the dossier on its own before using such intel to justify the FISA warrant." Of course, that didn't happen. In fact, the FBI hid information showing the dossier was false. Did Sciutto issue a correction? Of course not. But it does seem a little unfair to focus on Jim Sciutto. He was merely following the lead of almost everyone else at CNN, all of whom were frantically trying to convince us that the dossier was irrelevant:

Evan Perez, CNN senior justice correspondent: "You know, a lot of people will focus on the dossier, a lot of people will focus on a FISA, of Carter Page, and they'll say they were spying on a campaign. But at the beginning, this is all about what Russia was doing."

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN crime & justice correspondent: "Now Republicans were trying to claim that the dossier was key to getting the FISA, the surveillance warrant for Carter Page. But the Democrats memo clearly shows it wasn't key."

James Clapper, CNN national security analyst: "Even the earlier version of the redacted FISA authorization to me had enough information in it to indicate that the dossier was certainly not used as the primary source."

Everything you just read turned out to be wrong. Has CNN retracted the comments or apologized? That's a rhetorical question. Apologies require introspection and integrity. At CNN, they're doubling down. CNN's Don Lemon explained that, by definition, everything CNN reported was true:

Lemon: "So how is the White House and the Republican Party dealing with the articles of impeachment and an inspector general report that debunked conspiracy theories? Gaslighting. ... The FBI obtained proper warrants. You should read the report. Facts first. None of that is true. The report found that the launch of the Russia investigation was legally sound, unbiased and that no spying occurred."

In Lemon's world, facts are delicious. Mere opinion has no place. CNN's Chris Cuomo agrees.

CHRIS CUOMO: "'Trump is the victim.' All right, that was what was promised from this IG's report, 476 pages. No Trump as victim. Trump even says that that's what this says. It doesn't. He's lying to you about the report. Please, do yourself the favor, do the homework. He's lying to you."

Do the homework, demands Cuomo. Read the IG report! But you have to wonder if Cuomo himself read the report. Or did his assistant promise to read the report and give him a summary, but then got stuck in a super-long holiday season line at Starbuck's and forgot to do it? And then maybe, in a last-minute panic, which is understandable under the circumstances, told a few white lies to Chris about what the report says? We're not sure that's what happened of course, and we're not going to judge. We can surmise that, unless he's a pathological liar, Chris Cuomo didn't read the IG report himself. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to sit in a TV studio, stare into the camera and pretend that the Justice Department's inspector general just confirmed what CNN has been telling you for three years. Because that is absolutely not what happened. Not even close.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: demonrats; fbi; fisaabuse; inspectorgeneral; michaelhorowitz; painiscoming; trumpcampaign; trusthorowitz; trusttheplan; trustwray
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To: eartick
I believe this goes to the highest office in the land and it needs to come out.

You are far from alone in that belief. President Trump stated it when he said obama had my wires tapped. He was right then and you are right now.

21 posted on 12/14/2019 4:40:05 AM PST by Comment Not Approved (When bureaucrats outlaw hunting, outlaws will hunt bureaucrats.)
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To: Kaslin

It is not in the DNA of the current crop of “journalists” to apologize. Children of privilege and entitlement, they believe that reporting their prejudices and opinion somehow qualifies as “news”, and they are in some instances utterly blind to their gaps in thinking. Logic and reasoning have no place in their appraisal of what is “news”, if it bleeds, it leads. They actively go LOOKING for the bloodiest scenes their imaginations can conjure up.

“Good” gets lost in the dust.


22 posted on 12/14/2019 4:40:24 AM PST by alloysteel (Nowhere in the Universe is there escape from the consequences of the crime of stupidity.)
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To: eartick

“I believe this goes to the highest office in the land...”

Somehow, a Chicago woman quit her position in government to open up a position that a young Black man then filled. , A popular Republican senator left his race because, again, somehow, divorce records were opened up, and he was painted in a bad light (his ex having now remarried and living in France). All along the way, this man had people who greased the skids for him where his political enemies are concerned.

I believe 0bama has had it in for President Trump since Trump questioned the birth certificate. 0bama greenlighted it all AND has kept it going. Hillary just hopped on, along with the others.

As for the FIB, I hope everyone reading this knows to shut up around them. They’re Stasi/NKVD who speak English.


23 posted on 12/14/2019 4:41:09 AM PST by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust! Hi)
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To: Diogenesis

This


24 posted on 12/14/2019 4:46:02 AM PST by WKUHilltopper
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To: Kaslin

The filthy lying media doesn’t apologize. It deliberately and intentionally attempts to destroy Republicans and other normal people, and to promote democrats and other insane maniacs.


25 posted on 12/14/2019 4:48:37 AM PST by I want the USA back (If free speech is taken away, dumb and silent we are led, like sheep to the slaughter: G Washington)
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To: combat_boots
As for the FIB, I hope everyone reading this knows to shut up around them. They’re Stasi/NKVD who speak English.

Damn straight they are.

I am sick and tired that every time that Fat Boy International is talked about they do no wrong at the boot level. BS, they are all black booted thugs that are just longing to put their boots on We the People's throat.

26 posted on 12/14/2019 4:53:19 AM PST by eartick (Stupidity is expecting the government that broke itself to go out and fix itself. Texan for TEXIT!)
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To: combat_boots
As for the FIB, I hope everyone reading this knows to shut up around them. They’re Stasi/NKVD who speak English.

and another thing......damn too much coffee

After all these years and now with the Whoreowitz report, it is telling, that not ONE effin FBI boot came forward to blow the whistle on what was going on. They are all corrupt

27 posted on 12/14/2019 4:55:35 AM PST by eartick (Stupidity is expecting the government that broke itself to go out and fix itself. Texan for TEXIT!)
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To: Erik Latranyi

The publishers and media CEO’s will be among those prosecuted for seditious conspiracy

Criminal conduct is not protected by the first amendment


28 posted on 12/14/2019 4:58:06 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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To: Kaslin
The Propaganda Machine has no intention of apologizing for anything and no intention of seeking truth--truth for its own sake. Its entire mission is to serve the corrupt politicians of the Democrat Party.

In the decadent phase of Western Civilization, those afflicted by it have only contempt for truth.

29 posted on 12/14/2019 5:13:13 AM PST by Savage Beast (The curse of high intelligence: Having to watch the morons try everything that obviously won't work.)
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To: wastoute
"Is there a damn thing in this “report” that was not in Bongino’s book two years ago? In Andrew McCarhty’s book last year?"

Great point... And some of them seems so surprised by the whole deal.. Their either liars or they truly are stupid..

30 posted on 12/14/2019 5:24:47 AM PST by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
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To: eartick

Not taking issue with your post but one has to wonder whom they would have blown the whistle too? Their leadership, the press, the DOJ, congress, the president? I don’t see any avenue for a whistle blower to address marxist sedition, subversion, and corruption in the FBI or any other government agency.


31 posted on 12/14/2019 5:34:30 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Kaslin

Don’t hold your breath waiting for it. They have been wildly and consistently wrong for years. If you were wrong and made mistakes that often in your profession, you would be fired.


32 posted on 12/14/2019 5:39:56 AM PST by The Antiyuppie (‘When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.’)
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To: wastoute

“Is there a damn thing in this “report” that was not in Bongino’s book two years ago? In Andrew McCarhty’s book last year?”


I think the IG found out about the forgery by Clinesmith - though we already knew that Pages contacts with the Russians were being mischaracterized.

We knew that the Dossier was very, very, unverified, but did we know that the FBI had actually verified it was bogus with the primary source (and reported him as open and honest without including that he was open and honest that it was bartalk, gossip, and jests)?


33 posted on 12/14/2019 5:45:02 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: wastoute

BTW,

Here is a strong hint that the investigation was opened LONG before the time the FBI says it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bui45pQcy6E

March 2, 2016 Carter Page meeting – during a meeting where they are discussing him testifying against the three Russians in the case that resulted from his informing between 2008-2013, Page advises he recently volunteered for the Trump campaign.

Remember that they got the *first* FISA warrant AFTER Page had already left the Trump Campaign.

The lawyer goes back after the meeting and asks whether he has a clearance, and inquires as to what kind of investigation to open on him.


34 posted on 12/14/2019 5:50:31 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: eartick
"not ONE effin FBI boot came forward to blow the whistle on what was going on."

And yet another excellent point...

35 posted on 12/14/2019 5:51:31 AM PST by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
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To: lepton

I think the only thing that wasn’t known may have been that an FBI agent committed fraud on the president by pretending to be there for a President’s Daily Brief when he was actually spying on the president. The entire FBI needs to be sent to the crusher and landfill for that.


36 posted on 12/14/2019 5:54:14 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: metesky

It looks to me that many people on FR do not understand that the press, being free, is free to take sides as it wishes.


Rhetorically, ideologically, yes.

Reality-wise, there should be consequences to their reputation from readers/viewers, and their employment from their bosses.

Many of the things that were being reported on this had clear contradictions, and instead of adjusting their arguments, they disappeared them. Look at the liberals who were uninvited for CNN as an example.


37 posted on 12/14/2019 5:54:21 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: combat_boots

This is the thing I don’t get about the FBI. Right now they have half the voters in the country ready to rip their guts out. What the hell do they think the future holds for them in the USA? If the country should survive their perfidy, which I seriously doubt, what the hell do they think will happen to them down the road when our dissatisfaction with them can be turned into action? They have let their short term passions turn into serious long term liabilities. What’s more they did this to the half of the US voters that ONCE UPON A TIME had some respect for them.


38 posted on 12/14/2019 5:58:49 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Sacajaweau

That Russia influenced the 2016 election at all is a lie.


39 posted on 12/14/2019 5:59:33 AM PST by youngidiot (God save the President!)
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To: Comment Not Approved
"What have you got to lose?"

Svengoolie. It's my Saturday night guilty pleasure :)

40 posted on 12/14/2019 5:59:44 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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