The late Ben Bradlee has recently become a posthumous rock star. He is the subject of a new HBO documentary. And he is portrayed by Tom Hanks in The Post, a movie about the decision to print the Pentagon Papers which exposed the lies being told to the American people about the Vietnam War effort. Dear readers, you may remember I too looked to Bradlee for guidance on inauguration day 2017. At the time, I was concerned the press was playing into Donald Trump’s tiny hands every time they erred in reporting the news. Nothing bolsters Trump’s constant cries of “fake news” like occasional inaccurate reporting.
In what should have been the culmination of the best week for the resistance, the mainstream media has done something unimaginable. Three times in five days, they have buttressed the liar-in-chief’s charge the press will do anything, including make up stories, to take him down.
- ABC correspondent Brian Ross inaccurately reported Trump had directed Michael Flynn to make contact with the Russians about lifting Obama imposed sanctions during the transition.
- CNN inaccurately reported an email to Donald Junior with the location and password for accessing Wikileaks’ stolen DNC and John Podesta emails was sent on September 4, the same date Junior tweeted this information to his followers. To their credit, the Washington Post pointed out the email was actually dated 10 days later. But the later date undermined the time line CNN and others were using to build a case for collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.
- Until today, no media outlet independently checked the veracity of the high school yearbook inscription from Republican senate candidate Roy Moore to Beverly Young Nelson. Although Nelson says she only added the date and location to Moore’s message, not divulging this information at the outset damages her credibility. In a close race, any misstep can turn the tide.
In the first two cases, ABC and CNN preceded their scoops with the word “exclusive.” In an effort to post a story before the competition, the only exclusive thing about their reporting is how exclusively irresponsible they are.
But here’s the good news. The only people who really matter in this national horror story are Robert Mueller and his team. So I again remind all of you who keep asking how long are they going to take, the answer has and always will be, “As long as necessary to get it right.” Despite claims by Paul Manafort’s attorneys Mueller has misinterpreted the facts in their client’s indictment, no one, and I repeat NO ONE, has argued any of the facts are wrong.
The term “all deliberate speed” was first introduced in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas which ended the “separate but equal” doctrine contained in the previous Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Sadly, segregationists used the word “deliberate” to claim they were taking their time to make sure it was done correctly. However, in this case, all deliberate speed is EXACTLY what we need.
As Ben Bradlee reminded Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in All the President’s Men:
We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.
Where is the next Ben Bradlee when he/she is so badly needed?
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP
I am glad I didn’t read this before I went to bed last night. I am horrified about these incidents, but the ongoing policy of letting most of the child’s lies go unlabeled makes me tremble for our democracy. Now I see more and more Republican members of Congress giving him outright backing in his lies.
I continue to have faith in the American people. Trump’s disapproval rate (per Real Clear Politics average) continues to rise. My point is we don’t need speculation to fill the airwaves or tainted reporting when there are enough facts to make the same case. Those facts may not emerge as often or as quickly as we might wish, but they will.
I cannot tell you how many conspiracy theories I have about how Trump and his minions are manipulating over-eager news outlets to build their “fake news” case. There is circumstantial evidence but no definitive proof. Therefore, I have chosen not to share them. Instead, today’s post was simply meant to warn news outlets how jumping the gun, whether or not they are being played, stokes public skepticism about all U.S. institutions.
Courts of law and trials are equipped to deal with relevancy, competency, and materiality of “evidence” offered in court by opposing counsel. Judges, with some training, “instruct” fact finding juries on the law and nature of the evidence put in front of them for consideration – along with the appropriate “burdens of proof”. Then an adjudication occurs and an appellate process unfolds. We are deeply lost in the weeds now, with today’s media now playing the role of a court, judge, and jury – without the controls of a court’s “truth seeking process”. Amoral, corrupt politicians are simply lying there way into positions of power – and most all have no idea of what to believe or which way to go – and media psyops control outcomes. Our civilization is on the line.