Alan Dershowitz: BuzzFeed report (and Mueller rebuke) a vivid example of “Get Trump” media mindset

[chuckiechan]

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ala...e-a-vivid-example-of-get-trump-medias-mindset

But despite the obvious weakness of the BuzzFeed report, many members of the “get Trump at any cost” brigade were busy digging Trump’s political grave and getting ready to dance on it soon after the BuzzFeed report became the focus of massive news coverage.

Prominent congressional Democrats speculated about impeaching President Trump or calling for his resignation – and made plenty of false analogies to the articles of impeachment that had been drafted in the Nixon case.

As is typical of the “get Trump” media, wishful thinking took the place of thoughtful analysis and journalistic skepticism.

And it goes without saying that the TDS'ers get their hate fuel from these very media sources. Who will be the first here to re post the Buzzfeed article as if it were true?

The unnamed sources are called "law enforcement", so if they are on Mueller's crew as they are hinted to be, then Mueller can go after them and next, we can also settle once and for all "who is a journalist with source protection and who isn't". This is a question begging for an answer. Can I call myself an journalist? Can you? Maybe...

I seriously doubt Mueller will go anything, law or no law. It's just not what justice is about anymore.

 

[Xelor]

Alan Dershowitz: BuzzFeed report (and Mueller rebuke) a vivid example of “Get Trump” media mindset

Be that so or not, it doesn't alter the fact that, based on the careful wording of Mueller's comment on the Buzzfeed characterization of the information the Special Counsel has received, some portion of that depiction is accurate. What's unclear is what portion of it is unclear.


The the special counsel's office's statement is not an unqualified repudiation of the Buzzfeed story. Rather, it's a very carefully worded statement that tells us that something about Buzzfeed's characterization of the matter is inaccurate.

What Carr said re: Buzzfeed's reporting re: Mueller's office (that office being the only one on which Carr can speak with portfolio)?

BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.​

What Buzzfeed reported:

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.​

Careful readers recognize that Buzzfeed's reporting has a lot of assertions in it; thus the reporting as a whole is becomes inaccurate when any one of them is errant. How much of its reporting is accurate? Well, that's the proverbial "$64K question."

At the end of the day:

• Trump's lack of integrity and dishonesty are legendary. Were he not such a profligate liar and dissembler, were he and the people around him scrupulous, none of this, not even the Russia investigation, would be extant.
• There are people in the US government -- DoJ personnel, Trump, and Trump WH personnel -- and former Trump campaign personnel who know the truth. Not one of them has been forthcoming with the details of Trump and his campaign's comportment and cognition.
  • DoJ people won't say because there's an ongoing investigation; moreover, parts of it pertain to national security/counterintelligence matters.
  • Trump won't say because he abjures and abhors the existential truth about himself.
  • Former campaign personnel won't say because they fear any number of things.
  • WH personnel won't say because, if for no other reason, they've signed non-disclosure agreements.