How the WaPo makes the sausage
The WaPo and the rest of the MSM use many methods to write propaganda, but one common approach is to play a game of telephone. By “telephone” I mean the child’s game you may have played when young, which illustrates how things get garbled when the message isn’t from the original source.
Using uncorroborated anonymous sources, particularly those that are not the primary source of the information but are getting it second-hand, is not the way a reputable newspaper used to source its articles. But of course we know that taking that sort of care was jettisoned by most in the press quite some time ago, when politically expedient to benefit the left. I first wrote a post about the spread of the use of the anonymous source back in 2005 (re-posted here in 2017). As long as the MSM has some tenuous report from someone who heard something from somebody who said something-or-other, and that “something” can hurt the right and especially Donald Trump, it seems it’s good to go.
And these stories have legs. The Democrats have used the report I’m writing about now, as well as the false story about the demonstrator throwing a fire extinguisher on January 6th that caused the death of Officer Sicknick, to impeach Trump. There was no independent corroboration for either other than this game of journalistic telephone, which I believe the reporters all know (or should strongly suspect) is phony at the outset. It’s a cynical and mendacious political ploy, and yet plenty of members of the voting public are still fooled by it.
And they remain fooled, because probably only a small percentage of them are aware even now of these facts [emphasis mine]]:
An official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office was the only source for at least one story that falsely claimed former President Donald Trump told an investigator with the office to “find the fraud.”
Jordan Fuchs, deputy secretary of state, relayed details of the conversation to The Washington Post, an official with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed to The Epoch Times.
Fuchs was not on the call herself. She was told about the conversation by Frances Watson, the investigator.
So, the person on the phone call relayed its contents to Fuchs, who then relayed them to the WaPo. Fuchs never heard the call at all.
That’s some source.
I’d also like to know what Raffensperger knew and when he knew it. He’s been involved in blocking investigations into possible fraud in Georgia for quite some time, and despite being a Republican (one of those Republicans whose name will live in infamy on the right) he has a vested interest in squelching inquiry, because he’s the one who oversaw the election in that state and agreed to some of the lax rules. Therefore it’s been CYA time for Raffensperger (I suggest reading this article by Mollie Hemingway to get an overview of the history of the 2020 vote in Georgia).
More:
A recording of the call recently emerged from a records request, showing that the Post and a slew of other outlets had falsely reported Trump uttering several phrases.
The office of Raffensperger, a Republican, says Fuchs did not present details of the conversation as verbatim.
And yet they were presented by the WaPo as direct quotes, and I am relatively sure they thought no one would ever be the wiser. That phone call recording was in Watson’s trash folder on her phone, where it would have remained but for that “records request.” And if either Fuchs or Watson felt that she’d been misquoted when the WaPo held the words out to be Trump’s exact phrases, why did neither open the mouths to correct the record?
Note also, how that article I just linked in the above paragraph spins the whole thing as just more proof of “Trump’s extraordinary efforts to push false claims of widespread voter fraud and influence Georgia election officials as they certified the state’s election results.” To agree with that sentence, one must accept the idea that such claims were known to be false and that Trump was in fact pressuring Watson by making a request that she investigate (she denies feeling pressured).
Oh, and this:
[The WaPo] also outed Fuchs as its source, after previously describing her as an individual familiar with the call.
Hey, WaPo, want to interview me? I’m familiar with the call, after all – I read about it in the WaPo.
In the case of the Trump “quote,” the grapevine was far-reaching and intertwined:
The Associated Press in its correction used similar wording in explaining that it “erroneously reported” that Trump pressured Watson to “find the fraud,” and that if she did, she would be a national hero.
CNN offered an editor’s note in stating that its initial version “presented paraphrasing of the President’s comments to the Georgia elections investigator as direct quotes.”
The Associated Press and the Post declined to answer questions about the reporting, such as whether they would commit to no longer using Fuchs as a source. CNN, ABC News, NBC News, and Reuters didn’t return inquiries. Among the outlets, all have updated their original articles except for Reuters.
All of the outlets reported on the conversation by relying on a single source, who appears to have been Fuchs in every case.
It’s bad journalistic practice, but it’s become standard because it works for their purposes, which is not to tell the truth but to act as though they are:
Several generations ago, reporters couldn’t pursue stories without at least two sources, Andrew Schotz with the Society of Professional Journalists’ Ethics Committee told The Epoch Times.
The rise in competition and the Internet has led news outlets to value immediacy and being first over making sure things are correct, he added.
But the idea that this practice is driven by valuing immediacy is just garbage. For example, if immediacy were the goal, isn’t it curious that no one except the right-leaning NY Post was the least bit interested in reporting, immediately or ever, on Hunter Biden’s laptop? The only stories the MSM jumps to cover quickly are the ones that can hurt the right:
That sentiment was echoed by news outlets in their updates: most offered editor’s notes instead of corrections and painstakingly outlined how Trump had uttered phrases similar to what they had originally reported, indicating journalists felt their initial stories were largely correct.
The MSM clearly has no intention of stopping this sort of thing or admitting they did much of anything wrong here. Glenn Greenwald – no Trump supporter – once again has the guts to call them out on this. But he no longer writes for the MSM or even his own site The Intercept – too much truth-telling from Glenn for them to stomach.
[ADDENDUM: More on Fuchs here and also here. She is very young (30), was appointed by Raffensperger, and was active on Twitter in a rather junior high school way against Lin Wood (who had attacked her inexperience, and who’s got his own problems). She’s written things like this:
Republicans fell into a trap by expecting Brad Raffensperger and Brian Kemp to cheat for them.
Is she a Republican, even if In Name Only? Raffensperger is at least nominally one, and so apparently is Fuchs. Like Raffensperger, she was involved prior to the election in defending some of the changes there (including Dominion).She also is quoted as having said this, post-election:
“Trump and U.S. senators have refused to condemn these death threats,” she told Reuters. “In fact, he continues to support those who are actively calling for elections officials to be shot.”
Now, there’s an unbiased source.
She previously was Raffensperger’s campaign manager. Are they both moles? Seriously, this is all quite strange.]
Trump exposed the Fake News for the total dishonest frauds they are.
Why do we believe anything from them at all?
And I now include Fox News. They won’t have Patrick Bryne on air to discuss his book “The Deep Rig.” I heard Bryne on the Eric Metaxas podcast also say that the FBI set him up to bribe Hillary with $18m. Supposedly John Durham has it all.
(Again, everyone here buy “The Deep Rig” via neo’s AMZN link!!)
Jack Maxey, formerly with Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” has Hunter’s laptop. Full of porn and drug use by Hunter. Hunter has a tat of NY’s Finger Lakes on his back. Maxey says Hunter thinks of himself has some type of porn star. Maxey also alleges that Hunter abused his own 12 year old niece. But today this laptop is all supposedly Russian disinformation. LOL. Hunter was owned by the Russians. The Russians and Chinese wanted Joe in the WH.
We are ruined. I don’t see how we get out of this mess. It will take a massive crisis to get rid of the Dems.
How the heck did this Jack Maxey get ahold of Hunter’s laptop?
The laws or legal precedent must be changed to allow those individuals responsible for “reporting” the lies – including the editors and publishers, as well as the corporate entity, to be sued.
The punishment, should include ample prison time + financial penalties.
This should also apply to TV “news;” the “news” anchors / reporters should be held personally liable, as well as the corporate entity for reporting lies .
I realize the above has zero chance of ever happening; though rest assured, by the time Kamala Harris ends her presidency about 10 years from now, 100% of all “news” reporting will be straight up leftist propaganda.
The computer repair guy made mirror copies and gave one to Rudy. Rudy gave one to Maxey. Maxey gave it to the NY Post. It is all legit. The Biden camped never denied the pictures and laptop weren’t real.
The FBI has done nothing.
Maxey also said that Mossad stole the previous laptop Hunter owned and he complained about it on video. Hunter videotaped him doing all sorts of illegal things.
This all makes sense as we know Hunter is a drug and sex addict and not very smart to begin with. He is, after all, a Biden.
It has always been my belief that these “stories” are made up first by Left political PR shops and then through some new “Journolist” message board people are found to be the (paid) anonymous source[s] and the (paid) reporter[s] “writing” the story.
Cornhead:
So you’re saying that both the Chinese and the Israelis have incriminating material on Joe’s son Hunter? I can understand the Chinese not making it public, as they have been buying more and more of Joe for years now. But what gives with the Israelis? Why wouldn’t they dump this in late October 2020? Of perhaps they had not taken possession of it at that time.
“…a massive crisis…”
Well, it seems that “Biden” just called Putin “a killer with no soul”.
At first I thought he’d just misread the teleprompter but it seems like he actually may have meant it. (Vestiges of “tough-guy” “Biden”…?)
Of course, it could be pure theater meant to deflect the Democrats’ election “shenanigans” onto “Russian Interference”, Inc. (I wouldn’t put it past them); but if Putin chooses not to ignore it—he doesn’t after all appear to have a terrific sense of humor about things of this nature; and though he must realize that “Biden” is several bricks short, there is this thing called “honor” that still exists despite massive Progressive efforts to cancel the very concept—then things may, in short order, become “interesting”.
With the border “non-crisis”, the “porkulous” “FOR THE PEOPLE” bill, the silent-Biden question, the lost jobs gambit, the mullah matter and now this, Psaki may well have her work cut out for her.
We know she can giggle on command. We’ll soon find out if she can she tap dance as well.
File under: “Oh come on Man, I was just kidding. Can’t you take a joke? Besides, Trump made me say it, honest!”
As I read Neo and others in the past few days, it appears more and more likely the 2020 election will eventually be exposed as having been fraudulent in at least 5 states. It troubles me deeply to learn this, and to think that nothing will come of it. The Dems will not agree to give up the White House so Trump can step back in — that’s just too far a bridge. But will any of this serve to shake up the FBI or CIA? That would be a good start, as would bringing charges against Comey and Brennan. That would genuinely do my heart good.
But I am skeptical anything will ever come of this. My blood pressure will eventually come down, as will my wife’s, but Biden and Harris will serve out Joe’s four years, the Dems will find another 5 states to institute electoral fraud in 2024, the tech industry will prevent anyone from making a ruckus on social media about it, the NYTimes, WashPost, ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC will swear to the accuracy and honesty of the vote, and we will have Kamala Harris as POTUS on Jan 20, 2025. I mourn our nation. Washington/Hamilton/Jefferson et. al. must be shedding major tears.
Good call on the video neo. Though in this version Gaye repeats the second verse and leaves out the third verse with the telling lines
“People say believe half of what you see, son,
And none of what you hear”
To paraphrase WaPo: demos-cracy is aborted at the twilight fringe.
Lionel Hutz: Well, Your Honor, we’ve got plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence.
“Fake but accurate” is another motto that is more truthful than any that the media currently put on their mastheads and mission statements. How else do their “fact checks” and “corrections” play out?
Like nearly everyone, I abhor the devastation in lives and property that war brings. Yet I’ve come to realize that some issues are so divisive as to only be settled through that terrible price. The circumstances that lead to Civil wars definitely fall within that category.
We’re not going to vote our way out of this situation. The MSM will not stop its political propaganda. The ‘education’ establishment will not cease its indoctrination of children. The oppression of religion will deepen.
The left is ideologically compelled to settle for nothing less than a fudamental transformation that eviscerates individual liberty and makes a tyrannical elite the law of the land.
The choice will be presented in the starkest of terms, accept 1984 or fight.
“I mourn our nation. Washington/Hamilton/Jefferson et. al. must be shedding major tears.” F
Franklin may have seen it clearest but he could not have been the only founder who realized that creating a republic and keeping it were two entirely different things.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within” – Abraham Lincoln
Where else have we seen this Modus Operandi of bouncing stories between media fixtures to acquire a patina of faux credibility?
The propagation of the Trump dossier.
The propagation of the Trump Russia collusion story.
The first Trump impeachment.
The second Trump impeachment.
The list continues….
Maybe the real problem is the public’s reluctance to understand that the stories and content generated by the modern press and media are based on production values, not moral ones.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
(And if there is no crisis on hand, then create one…keeping in mind that The Narrative(TM) must be fed. Continuously.)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-calls-home-its-ambassador-after-biden-teases-sanctions-killer-putins-inner
Cornhead – “We are ruined. I don’t see how we get out of this mess. It will take a massive crisis to get rid of the Dems.
A very simple solution is the re-examine the Sullivan doctrine. This like Section 230 has been bent out of shape over the years. We have to tackle this.
Greenwald and Tabbibi have been on fire lately.
Legacy media just read each other twitters and report this as news. Remember that all the other Legacy Media reported they confirmed this through THEIR anonymous sources. I actually have stopped reading or watching any legacy media. The only exception is Tucker Carlson.
I have two questions I haven’t seen addressed in what I’ve read so far.
1. Why didn’t the White House have a copy of the phone call? I assume that if they had one, it would have been brought forth at the time the story first broke.
2. Who had the smarts to look through Watson’s phone trash can, and then the integrity to publish it?
(I learned myself that deleting things doesn’t actually eradicate them, but there is a process to make that happen, which apparently Watson or Fuchs didn’t know.)
Now I’ll look through all the links and see if I missed the answers somewhere.
Maybe they are in the Epoch Times post, which is behind a paywall.
(Memo: so pay for a subscription already; they do good work.)
Bloom at TAC at least speculates on the unnamed persons who have knowledge of the process by which the call was recovered.
The WRBCTV post is amazingly slanted. They slam Trump for the usual “baseless allegations without evidence” * in the same article that exonerates him from the false claims of intimidating the investigator, and quote the CNN on the WaPo alleged quotes but NOT the actual language of the call.
SMH.
*(although at least they don’t use those words: “The call added to the examples of Trump’s extraordinary efforts to push false claims of widespread voter fraud and influence Georgia election officials as they certified the state’s election results.”)
Listening to a podcast about “deep fakes” this morning they discussed “partisan media”, lies, and exaggerated claims.
As usual, ALL examples were aimed at Trump or Deplorables.
Grrr. None of these shows ever have one of us on the panel.
The last question was of moles. I often wondered the same thing about some GOP judicial nominations. In a red state like Ga (and still bright red as far as actual human voters), why wouldn’t Democrats recruit moles to pretend to by Republicans. Democrats lie, steal and cheat all the time. It’s their SOP. Moles would be entirely consistent with everything else they do. They see politics as war. And they fight with everything they have.
We know that the Clintons were combing through FBI files for dirt on people. We know that for years Obama gave Democrat operatives (“contractors”) open access to the NSA databases to look for information useful to Obama. Anyone reading CJ Roberts’ opinions has to wonder what the blackmail info is that is being used against him.
Moles (secret agents) should be expected. Along with vote fraud, spying, blackmail, the use of the Big Lie propaganda, subversion of FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA, military — it’s all war, all the time.