Posted on 02/06/2023 2:46:18 PM PST by lasereye
Without much fanfare, earlier this week Jeff Gerth, a Pulitzer-Prize winning former New York Times investigative reporter, dropped a thorough and damning four-part article dissecting the media’s obsessive reporting on Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. Even more surprising, Gerth’s report, “The press versus the president,” appeared at the in-house organ of America’s most prestigious journalism school, Columbia Journalism Review, which has long been regarded as something of an unofficial ombudsman for the media industry.
If CJR is finally comfortable admitting that the media’s Russiagate reporting was so scandalously bad that it damns the entire industry, that seems like a remarkable admission.
On Twitter, Glenn Greenwald, a left-leaning reporter who made some significant career sacrifices for calling out the media’s bogus reporting on this topic, declared Gerth’s reporting “absolutely devastating on how casually, frequently, recklessly and eagerly the press lied on Russiagate.” Gerth lays out what happened so clearly that it’s hard to imagine fair-minded readers who make it through all 24,000 words of Gerth’s report would conclude any differently. Personally, I’m proud to say that the work of RealClearInvestigations – and my colleagues there, Tom Kuntz, Aaron Mate, and Paul Sperry – are all cited favorably by Gerth as one of the few media outlets that consistently got the story right.
However, as someone who spent much of his time during the Trump years engaged in substantive reporting that questioned and debunked the Russia collusion narrative, my reaction was, well, anger. It’s an emotion not directed at Gerth, who has done courageous work. But the fact that this piece is appearing two years after Trump left office and nearly five years after special prosecutor Robert Mueller failed to substantiate years of anonymously sourced speculation about Russia collusion is a searing indictment in itself.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
It's also understandable why Gerth would want to keep his report narrowly focused on the facts of what transpired. But without any substantive discussion of the media’s motives it’s hard to draw any important lessons from this sorry saga.
Columbia and the New York Times have zero credibility. What do you do when you deal with someone with zero credibility? You ignore them because you cannot trust a word they say. That’s the consequence. Thus, regardless what was written, true or otherwise, it deserves no attention. I’m not saying censor this report. The leftist readers of the New York Times may just one day seek facts. As for Columbia, they along with every college and university in America should never receive a single tax dollar - ever.
“But without any substantive discussion of the media’s motives it’s hard to draw any important lessons from this sorry saga.”
I disagree. The most important lesson is brazenly obvious..... That the media should never EVER be trusted to report facts honestly, objectively, fairly, accurately, from an informed vantage, PERIOD.
People need to return Pulitzers...
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