Reporters driving the news? Gonzo journalism? Hunter would be proud, though he’d feel there weren’t enough drugs involved.
I hope Mueller has a bag full of thumb drives ready to deliver to the Times and WaPo when the shit hits the fan and Trump shuts down his investigation and fires him.
The apparently stupid, gullible and borderline unethical initial New York Times reporting–which they’ve doubled down on–is becoming less defensible by the day.
“One thing we need to understand is the larger context of all of this, and that is that we are in a cold civil war in this country. These two events, both the Mueller investigation and the Kavanaugh nomination are almost the Gettysburg and Antietam, the absolute central battles of this cold civil war.”
Carl Bernstein, 8/25/18
Which side is winning and why?
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
HST
What is going on with the DC team of the NYT? They’ve effectively become a press release service for Trump PR. What good is access if you’re just going to transcribe what White House sources tell you?
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
But, but, but, didn’t SHS tell us that Rosenstein’s arrival at the WH was nothing more than a mundane, previously scheduled appointment? Furthermore, if Rosie and Shroomy McToadstool spoke extensively yesterday, why the need for a Thursday meeting?
This entire story looks like it was invented by some Republican operatives in conjunction with New York Times reporters. Perhaps we should have less regard for the Times going forward.
The NYT reporting has been rough since the Trump administration was still the Trump campaign. Haberman and Schmidt value access over all else, and will serve as a de facto press release service to maintain their precious access. They report the administration’s side of things, then WaPo and other outlets get all the context and tell the full story.
I think it’s about time we called out the NY Times for, effectively, creating this entire crisis. Their story on Friday was basically just gossip in that it was reporting on statements people might have made over a year ago, in the heat of the moment and in the confidence of the few people who were around.
It shouldn’t have been news at all, but was only news in that we all knew that the story would cause Trump to have a major meltdown further jeopardizing the Meuller investigation. In essence, it was a story written to create news by potentially creating a crisis.
That might not be quite as irresponsible as when they put Clinton Cash on their front page in the summer of 2016, but the NY Times clearly wasn’t acting in the interest of the American people or responsible journalism by putting that story out last Friday. I’m thinking of canceling my subscription over this.
Typical Trumpian WH bait-and-switch: try to muddy the waters via selective leaks, get the target to commit an error. I suspect that Rosenstein knew exactly what was going on and told Kelly “you’re gonna have to fuckin fire me.”
This version of the story says that Kelly didn’t want Rosenstein out before the midterms, which is pretty funny, by which I mean not funny at all.
The idea that Noel Francisco, conservative Catholic, who both clerked for Antonin Scalia and was part of the Bush Florida recount team, and my fellow General Jefferson Beauregard (who is an Attorney, and so known as Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard) are going to handle the recommendations of the Mueller investigation is making me queasy. If no indictments drop Wednesday, I’m going to have to stock my pantry and evict the family of raccoons from my air raid shelter.
No news source would cover the Ed Whelan fiasco, but the NYT went with this baloney. Knowing the source’s extreme partisanship and motives, it’s interesting that the journalists decided that there was a story here, especially since it was based on second or third-hand sourcing.
Bad.
So you have Michael Schmidt of the NY Times who uses third party sourcing to plant a story that strokes the crisis. Do they bother to confirm with primary sources like a responsible journalist? Of course not.
Then on Monday you have Jonathan Swan at Axios relying on Trump administration sources to report that Rosenstein is resigning. Does he check other sources to support his reporting? Why bother?
Yeah, it’s more of a question of when than if as far as Trump nuking someone. He’s expressed curiosity and consternation in many interviews about U.S. hesitancy over using nuclear weapons.
“Why have them if you can’t use them?” is his philosophy.
Yes, and I live in San Francisco, which is near the top of his list of likely targets, right between Canada and “NATO allies”.
The old Gray Lady ain’t what she used to be.
We’ve crossed the rubicon: reporters are now being fed stories to make news rather than to report it. There’s a third option concerning the motive for the leaks to the Times. The leakers don’t want Rosenstein to resign or to be fired–both moves would cause a scandal–but to recuse himself from the Russia investigation because of multiple conflicts of interest. Easy way to get him out of the picture and to take charge of the Mueller investigation.
Failed Fourth Estate Feedback Loop Farce
They literally manufactured their own news to report on here. Fucking absurd.