The media, largely guided by the Democrat party, has been celebrating the Mueller report as vindication for their journalistic efforts over the last two years.
The victory lap, though not surprising, has been thoroughly unfounded.
One of the biggest offenders of perpetuating this ridiculous notion that the media nailed it has been CNN’s Brian Stelter, host of the inappropriately titled ‘Reliable Sources.’
Stelter tweeted out a Slate article along with a quote which read, “The Mueller report is out, and the journalists who’ve spent the past several years reporting on Trump’s conduct are looking a lot better than Trump himself …”
The rotund journalist accused Trump of perpetuating lies off of the report, and suggested it was the media’s responsibility to continue to “lead the way by talking about morality and ethics.”
But he is the one lying.
On his show @ReliableSources, @brianstelter says Trump and his allies are telling “big lies.”
He said it’s the media’s role to “stand up for decency” in the age of Trump and can help “lead the way by talking about morality and ethics.” pic.twitter.com/SLQbaBEqH8
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 22, 2019
Morality and ethics are two virtues that have been lacking in the liberal mainstream media for decades.
Nowhere has that been more obvious than at Brian’s own network, where people lost their jobs and CNN was caught posting multiple false stories.
— Rusty Weiss ??? (@rustyweiss74) April 21, 2019
And while Stelter is obviously lying about CNN’s decency, morality, and honesty – and he deserves perpetual mockery for doing so – others are just as guilty.
Here are four top stories that proved to be ‘fake news,’ smears that the media tried to spread which the Mueller investigation proved false once and for all.
Michael Cohen Traveled to Prague
In April of 2018, McClatchy ran an article which indicated one aspect of the Steele dossier had been proven – that President Trump’s former lawyer had traveled to Prague.
“Sources: Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier,” the headline read.
Only one problem – Cohen never traveled to Prague according to the Mueller report, a revelation which also debunked the allegation from the DNC-funded Steele dossier.
Over one year later, McClatchy was forced to put an ‘editor’s note‘ on the article.
Party Platform Weakened by Trump at Behest of Russia
Josh Rogin of the Washington Post wrote an op-ed column claiming the 2016 Republican Party platform was weakened by President Trump to please Russia.
In it, Trump staffers reportedly wrote an amendment that stripped out the party platform’s call for “providing lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine, replacing it with a toned-down call for “appropriate assistance.”
Rogin flat-out claimed that the change was made because Trump “oppose[d] sending lethal weapons to Ukraine,” alleging it was reworded because of the his “friendlier” view of Russia.
The Mueller report debunked this smear, writing “The investigation did not establish that one Campaign official’s efforts to dilute a portion of the Republican Party platform on providing assistance to Ukraine were undertaken at the behest of candidate Trump or Russia.”
Buzzfeed’s Bombshell Fizzles
Earlier this year, Buzzfeed reported that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.
The story claimed that Cohen “told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.”
A bombshell for sure, if true. Except it wasn’t.
One of the authors on the story, Jason Leopold, had been caught before fabricating sources and stories time and again. Yet, Buzzfeed stood by the story, vociferously.
Yea, one of the @BuzzFeed reporters hasn’t actually seen the evidence he’s reporting on, the other has a history of making up sources. @a_cormier_ @JasonLeopoldhttps://t.co/J8e7e703behttps://t.co/LeP9JK1uVu
— Rusty Weiss ??? (@rustyweiss74) January 18, 2019
Mueller’s team took the extraordinary step of speaking out publicly at the time and denying the story, an act the release of the report has now justified.
BuzzFeed News editor Ben Smith embarrassingly tried to explain the botched effort, but still refused to retract the story.
Collusion Illusion
Of course, no list would be complete without noting the entire premise behind the Mueller investigation – that Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election was proven false.
“That’s the bottom line,” Barr says of Mueller’s finding of no collusion between Trump campaign and Russian government.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 18, 2019
The media can take their little victory lap celebrating the great work they supposedly did on the Russia story, but the reality is they whiffed on major stories time and again.
They are, and remain, one of the most corrupt institutions in the United States today. Perhaps Muller should open up an investigation into the borderline criminal media.
