NBC does an Emily Litella on the “Trump’s lawyer was wiretapped” story
That video is one of my favorites, and I’ve had occasion to use it over and over—and over and over—in the 13 years I’ve been blogging. And just about always, the reference is to something the MSM has done.
This time it’s the story in the post right below this one, that the feds wiretapped Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, and even listened in on one of his calls with Trump. When I wrote that post I expressed some skepticism about the report’s truth, and based that on a quote by Giuliani (who’s knowledgeable about the governing law), my own recollections (admittedly ancient) from my law school career, mistrust of the MSM, and a gut feeling.
NBC must have been pleased as punch to break this story, but they probably weren’t quite as pleased to retract—I mean “correct” it just a few hours later:
NBC News issued an on-air correction to their bombshell story Thursday reporting that a federal wiretap was placed on Michael Cohen’s phone. NBC said federal authorities were “monitoring” phone calls of President Trump’s lawyer, but not listening to them as previously reported. Authorities obtained a log of Cohen’s phone calls, known as a “pen register,” NBC quoted three senior U.S. officials as saying.
I happen to have been in my car doing errands this afternoon, and I also happen to have been doing something unusual at the same time—listening to talk radio for a few minutes. It was Howie Carr, who’s often very sardonically funny, and he’d just been saying that maybe it was a pen register instead of a wiretap, when Bam! The correction came in.
He mentioned that when he was a young reporter he had to cover the local police beat, and that’s where he learned about things like wiretaps vs. pen registers. But young reporters today are “journalists,” and most of them have no idea about the world outside of journalism, and therefore they don’t know when they should be smelling something fishy.
Nor, perhaps, do they care, as long as they get the clicks or the views.
I’m not sure how old Tom Winter—who broke the story and then had to correct it—is. But his LinkedIn site indicates someone around forty or early forties. That’s old enough to know better, but his background doesn’t seem to include covering a police beat as a reporter, or covering anything as a print reporter at all. It all seems to be broadcast news.
He describes himself this way:
I am an energetic, aggressive, responsible, and driven journalist. Specializing in breaking news, creativity in live production, and knowledgeable of the business of broadcasting.
“Specializing in breaking news”—that means speed is of the essence. “Aggressive” and “driven”—likewise. “Responsible”? Not so much, I’m afraid. Why didn’t he interview those “three senior U. S. officials” first, not later?
But I’m not going to be too hard on Tom Winter. He’s just a person who came up in an environment that values speed rather than accuracy, and that’s so focused these days on getting Trump that it’s “driven” to break any story that might reflect badly on him. Winter’s just one of the crowd, and his bosses probably don’t care. In fact, this story may have been purposely aired before it was fully checked, because it was sure to get a lot of publicity and readers.
As a blogger, I have to write very very quickly. I don’t have access to sources, either, except for open sources. I try to be accurate, careful, and cautious—I’ve learned that I must be very very cautious.
I’ve made a few mistakes so far, and I’ll probably make more, but considering everything I think my track record of accuracy vs. skepticism is quite good. But it galls me that the MSM still finds it necessary to hold themselves out as so much more trustworthy than mere bloggers. I wonder how many people believe that these days.
I was just reading this over at Ace of Spades. He has a quote by Giuliani and in it Giuliani predicted this would happen.
I’m interested to see what happens now that Giuliani has entered the fray.
Fractal Rabbit:
Yes, I put that Giuliani quote in my own previous post on the subject, too, because I suspected he might be correct.
And it turns out he was.
The thing is that some of these ‘mistakes’ have caused massive (often short term) damage. The Brian Ross ABC ‘mistake’ (don’t even remember what it was about) caused the stock market to drop a couple hundred points in a few minutes.
And beyond tangible effects there is also the growing sense of unease that comes with all the drama that may or may not even be true. Very tiring.
Brian Ross was also the guy who identified a Tea Party member s the Colorado mass murderer.
To Griffin’s point, when the media runs amok it can have very serious consequences.
I used to be a bit of a CNBC junky. I remember watching the Flash Crash of May 6, 2010. They say a trillion dollars of market value was lost, and mostly recovered within the 26 minute duration.
The SEC says it was caused by problems with stub quotes or some such nonsense, but the day before, CNBC had run video coverage of Greece where anarchists had been rioting. The riots had injured police and culminated in the firebombing of a bank branch where three bank employees were burned to death.
Now this was an extremely news worthy story and there weren’t any inaccuracies, but CNBC ran the videos in an endless loop for a great many hours, well into the after market hours on May 5. On the morning of May 6, flash crash.
In the UK they call them “News Readers” (or did when I was last there), and that is a much more accurate description.
I suspect that most of the “on-air talent” (use oxymoron in a sentence) don’t know their (deleted) from a hole in the ground about most of the subjects they blab about.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/03/dershowitz-i-dont-want-to-live-in-police-state/
This is an epic rant.
I really wonder when Dersh will flip.
Griffin Says:
May 3rd, 2018 at
8:22 pm
The Brian Ross ABC ‘mistake’ (don’t even remember what it was about)
* *
For all of us trying to keep the scorecard marked —
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/03/media-failure-russia-trump-story/
“The Definitive List Of Media Screw-Ups On The Trump-Russia Story”
While we’re back on the subject of Trump — did we ever get off?– here are a few ICYMI links.
http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/385646-how-about-a-few-questions-for-robert-mueller
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/05/trump-threatens-the-independence-of-doj-lets-hope-so.php
So let me get this straight.
NBC reports that Trump’s lawyer was wiretapped. This confirms the worst fears on both sides. Either Trump is a one Bad Hombre or we live in a Police State.
Judging from the reaction on this blog, Team Red definitely had the pitchforks out, ready to save Fair Damsel Ivanka from the Men in Blue.
So NBC retracts.
Now all the pitchfork holders want the lynch the Fake Newsmen. Lets put aside for a moment the notion that being lynched is a choice.
I seem to recall a draft-dodger who claimed his daddy’s net worth as his own to Forbes in order to lie about who he fundamentally is…not so long ago claiming someone wiretapped his phone.
And he never retracted.
The wiretappers, had there been any, would have qualified for lynching. Since, it turns out, the report was false, they get a reprieve.
But, since the journos turn out to have screwed up or lied, they qualify.
There’s no contradiction.
So, let me get this straight Manju.
Some people, let’s call them…Fiberals* (or maybe Ogressiveprays…) don’t see some contradictions at all, where contradictions actually exist.
Then, quite often (like, say 42 times a day and twice before breakfast) they don’t see any contradictions at all, where said contradictions actually do exist. After all, if you like your income and privacy and religion, you can keep them.
Is this Contradiction Confusion? Or Contradiction Controversion? I don’t know. I can’t think of anything catchy.
*We could also make other subcategories and Orgs like WINOs, Unplanned Parenthood, the Ass, Grass or Gas Party, the Socialist Laggards Party, etc.
“But I’m not going to be too hard on Tom Winter.”
All right, I will. Tom Winter is not some rookie reporter. NBC News is not a weekly in Podunk, Iowa. He gets paid enough not to make errors like this.
But maybe, just maybe, the original report was true and not an error. Remember that much of – ok, all – of the MSM news on President Trump is coordinated, so someone has to give a briefing on what today’s stories are going to be and what will be said (and not said) in the MSM and elsewhere. Maybe Tom Winter got the briefing and wrote the story as directed and then someone with a brain in the DNC/MSM/whoever front office said, “Oops, that reveals the FBI (and/or whoever) using the Carter Page FISC warrant to use NSA’s data base to spy on Trump and his team. Take out ‘wiretap’ and put in ‘pen register’.” More likely than not these days with the combination of incompetence and Trump hatred and the utter disregard for the law on the left.
I seem to recall a draft-dodger
The term ‘draft dodger’ does not mean what you think it means.
He received an ordinary I-Y deferment. About 200,000 were issued every year at that time for mundane medical defects which rendered the subject a less than optimal candidate for the military. They were issued to subjects for being overweight, for being underweight, for eczema on the feet, for pilonidal cysts. etc etc. He could have been re-examined for military service in as little as 90 days. A year-and-a-half later, the draft lottery was held to determine the order in which people would be examined for military service among those born prior to 1951 who had not yet served. The number corresponding to his dob was 356. Like everyone else born on 14 June during the years running from 1944 to 1950, he wasn’t subject to conscription after 1969.
We’ve had just two real draft dodgers who’ve been consequential presidential candidates. One was Bernie Sanders (who hired a draft lawyer in 1965 to press a bogus claim for conscientious objector status; said lawyer won so many continuances from Sanders’ draft board that they managed to run out the clock on his eligibility). The other was Bill Clinton, who executed a deft series of maneuvers in 1969 which allowed him to shirk his ROTC service obligations. Of course, it doesn’t stop partisan Democrats from lobbing this insult at Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, John Wayne &c whose service records were perfectly above-board.
who claimed his daddy’s net worth as his own to Forbes in order to lie about who he fundamentally is…
He didn’t.
ot so long ago claiming someone wiretapped his phone.
Trump Tower was bugged.
These days, it seems the entire portfolio of motivating issues for partisan Democrats is based on lies.
Corrections and retractions are the only part of the news that people should believe.
Manju:
Don’t you get tired of the talking points?
By the way, one can object to different aspects of a sequence of events. For example, one can be outraged at the prospect of a wiretap of Cohen (or actually, any action violating attorney-client privilege without there being a really really really good reason and the proper procedures being followed, not to mention a very high bar for wiretapping someone whose politics you don’t like and would like to destroy) and also be outraged that the MSM so often reports things that are not true.
I don’t recall anyone on this blog mentioning Ivanka at all in connection with this episode, either. Perhaps you’re getting the blogs you troll mixed up?
“But it galls me that the MSM still finds it necessary to hold themselves out as so much more trustworthy than mere bloggers. I wonder how many people believe that these days.” — Neo
Well, Manju does, obviously (thanks to Art Deco, for taking care of the rebuttal), and there are quite a few others who persuade themselves that “If it’s in the [pick your main-stream-professional-media-outlet], it must be true.”
* * *
Bill Peschel Says:
May 4th, 2018 at 8:11 am
“But I’m not going to be too hard on Tom Winter.”
All right, I will. Tom Winter is not some rookie reporter. NBC News is not a weekly in Podunk, Iowa. He gets paid enough not to make errors like this.
* * *
Some on the conservative spectrum used to point to Jake Tapper as “the last honest journalist” but that’s gone by the wayside now.
* * *
BourbonChicken Says:
May 4th, 2018 at 9:45 am
“Corrections and retractions are the only part of the news that people should believe.”
* * *
As Ike suggest, I’m not even sure we should believe those now.
And don’t get me started on “fact checkers.”
I’m sure you make mistakes, Neo, and perhaps some are caused by a bias, but I cannot imagine your mistakes are anything other than real mistakes caused by misunderstanding or having incomplete or incorrect information.
One reason I’ve read you on a daily basis for many years is that I trust your judgement, and I trust that your efforts are in the pursuit of truth no matter where it leads. In that regard, you are a far better journalist than almost every so-called “journalist” out there, even if you’re doing it all behind a computer and not pounding the streets like a real investigative reporter would be doing. Yes, your blog is an opinion blog, but your opinion is worth hearing, and I trust that the things you claim are facts are not deliberately distorted or selective.
And as is the case with the best blogs I follow daily (and there are only a few), the commentary is also of high quality. I also care what your regulars have to say because they offer useful and interesting commentary as well, and it seldom descends to name-calling and other nonsense. Trolls don’t get much of a foothold around here.
Keep up the good work!
Some on the conservative spectrum used to point to Jake Tapper as “the last honest journalist” but that’s gone by the wayside now.
—-
I think it’s fair to say he was a few years ago, but he’s totally sold out.
How many liberals are there?
Probably nearly 1-1 with that set.
Yeah, but the boy can cry wolf only so many times. Even when his friends all cry it with him.
Yup. Seconded. Motion carries…
😉
“I am an energetic, aggressive, responsible, and driven journalist. Specializing in breaking news, creativity in live production, and knowledgeable of the business of broadcasting.”
THAT is a a bullshit artist who has no substantial knowledge of any use to anybody.
Hell, I know how to pad a resume, and I can certainly tell when someone else is doing so.
BourbonChicken: “Corrections and retractions are the only part of the news that people should believe.”
There is a saying, “Everything you read in the newspaper is true except for those things you have personal knowledge of”.
I’m with Ike – I suspect they were wiretapping him using the FISA warrant and this was inadvertently reported.
Art Deco,
According to a journalist who worked on the Forbes list, he did.
Long, short: In 1984 he tried to claim his daddy’s properties as his. This would make him a billionaire. He had entered the Forbes List (of wealthiest Americans) 2 years earlier, with an estimated worth of $100 million.
That’s still pretty good, right? Wrong. Trump’s real net-worth at the time was less that $5 million.
He’s lying about who he fundamentally is. He’s not Warren Buffet. He’s about as successful as Paris Hilton.
FOAF-
“There is a saying, “Everything you read in the newspaper is true except for those things you have personal knowledge of”.”
That sounds like the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect that Michael Crichton used to talk about all the time.
Manju,
Interesting. You realize that ‘desperation is a stinky cologne’* right?
*from Super Troopers. Meow!
According to a journalist who worked on the Forbes list, he did.
A journalist who hasn’t worked at Forbes in more than 30 years, a journalist who has no basis to make that claim independently of research conducted by other staff at Forbes for over 30 years, a journalist who is making this claim after Trump Tower was completed, a journalist who is making this claim in the teeth of the research done by PrivCo on the Trump Organization’s employment and revenue streams. And, yes, the journalist in question is a well-known leftoid mime.
You haven’t an ounce of skepticism when it’s inconvenient to you.
He cites Fred Trump’s will; “the father retained legal ownership of his residential empire until his death in 1999.” Without these properties, Donald Trump would only be worth 7-figures during those years.
He also cites “a 1981 report from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission” who had access to his tax returns and debt:
He’s just a daddy’s boy pretending to be a real man.
Manju:
Sure, Trump had a nest egg to start. But he was anything but coddled by his father. Read a biography of him such as this one, written by a relatively fair although non-flattering non-fan.
He cites Fred Trump’s will; “the father retained legal ownership of his residential empire until his death in 1999.” Without these properties, Donald Trump would only be worth 7-figures during those years.
“He” is playing thimblerig with his readers. Fred Trump developed residential properties and avoided Manhattan. His son develops commercial real estate and resorts.
He also cites “a 1981 report from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission” who had access to his tax returns and debt:
Tax returns are not balance sheets.
Manju, wouldn’t you agree that turning a one million dollar trust fund into a three billion dollar estate is evidence of even greater success than if he started with all the money you claim he didn’t have?
Are you making the point that we should be giving Donald even more respect for business strategy than he gets now?
Painkiller…he had an inheritance above an beyond his trust fund.
Great. So you understand why PrivCo’s research on the Trump Organization’s employment and revenue streams is not dispositive.
As you can see for yourself, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission had access to Trump’s assets and liabilities.
Long/short: “Trump was worth less than $5 million”
‘Long/short: “Trump was worth less than $5 million”
So let’s get this straight. We are supposed to think less of Trump based on the millions or billions in his net worth, most of it self-created over a lifetime.
On the other hand, we are not supposed to notice that the last president never held a significant job in the productive world – leaving aside the communist agitator (sorry, “community organizer”) and don’t-worry-about-showing-up ‘just vote present’ state legislator gigs.
Got it.
OriginalFrank: Trump’s net worth wasn’t self-created. That’s the point.
Manju, your points are discordant.
You state with certainty that “Trump was worth less than $5 million,” but also had an “inheritance above and beyond a trust fund.”
Well…which is it? You claim he is lying, but also claim he had more money when it convenient, and less money when it also is convenient for whichever story you want to tell.
He obviously has plenty of money which he got without his dad’s help.
If your dad gave you $5,000, have you turned it into $3 million? Because Donald did. Except on a bigger scale.