Washington Post's (Hack) Media Columnist Silly Eric Wemple: "Come Clean, CNN"

He's a hack and a goof and a partisan shill, and he's not willing to criticize the Washington Post as acting as the rec.gov.treason.coup messageboard of #TheResistance, but he is at least willing to attack his employer's competitors.

"We stand by our reporting." That phrase is a go-to in media industry public relations, unleashed when events appear to debunk an outlet's precious scoop. It's right up there with "We don't comment on personnel matters" and "We don’t comment on editorial deliberations."

And there "We stand by our reporting' was in a CNN statement to the Erik Wemple Blog, which had asked the network about its anchors’ repeated claims that the dossier compiled by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele had been corroborated to a significant degree. "Your intel community has corroborated all the details," CNN host Alisyn Camerota told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in December 2017. Other CNNers stated that "parts" or "much" of the dossier -- which claimed an "extensive conspiracy" between the Trump campaign and Russia prior to the 2016 presidential election -- had been corroborated.

A nearly two-year investigation by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz upended all such talk with this finding: "The FBI concluded, among other things, that although consistent with known efforts by Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections, much of the material in the Steele election reports, including allegations about Donald Trump and members of the Trump campaign relied upon in the Carter Page FISA applications, could not be corroborated; that certain allegations were inaccurate or inconsistent with information gathered by the Crossfire Hurricane team; and that the limited information that was corroborated related to time, location, and title information, much of which was publicly available."

Here’s CNN's full statement to the Erik Wemple Blog: "CNN stands by our reporting. Our approach to the dossier has been consistent since day one. CNN only reported details when they were corroborated, part of a government filing, or publicly discussed by officials or those mentioned."

He also notes that one of the "starkest" Fake News "reports" came from Evan Perez, Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson's former partner at the Wall Street Journal and one of his best friends. (They post pictures of themselves together on ski vacations, for example.)

CNN never discloses this connection, and of course it doesn't admit that it's little more than a transmission node for paid-for Fusion GPS disinformation and political ops.

posted by Ace at 06:20 PM

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