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The Big Lies › 2023 › File PF-0217
Bad Call

CJR's Gerth Series Faults the Press's Trump-Russia Coverage

Major outlets' 2016 to 2019 Trump-Russia coverage, much of it built on anonymous sources and the Steele dossier, led audiences to expect a collusion finding that never came.

First reported Jan 30, 2023 · The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC
Screenshot of the original report as published
Screenshot of the report as published: cjr.org. Tap to open the source.
Who it helped: Democrats

Coverage under review favored the collusion narrative; the critique was embraced by the right.

What was reported

Major outlets' 2016 to 2019 Trump-Russia coverage, much of it built on anonymous sources and the Steele dossier, led audiences to expect a collusion finding that never came.

What actually happened

In March 2019, Matt Taibbi argued that Russiagate could do the press more damage than Iraq WMD coverage. In January 2023, the Columbia Journalism Review published Jeff Gerth's four-part, roughly 24,000-word review. It faulted the Times and others for relying on uncorroborated material and for never doing a postmortem like the Times's Iraq review. Critics including Mother Jones's David Corn, New York's Jonathan Chait, Vox and Rachel Maddow said Gerth ignored real evidence of misconduct and Russian interference. Former AP reporter Tom LoBianco argued that much of the reporting held up even without indictments.

The proof

CJR's four-part special report (Jan. 30, 2023), read with Mueller's finding that conspiracy was not established.

The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:

CJR's Gerth Series Faults the Press's Trump-Russia Coverage — Bad Call. CJR's four-part special report (Jan. 30, 2023), read with Mueller's finding that conspiracy was not established. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/cjr-gerth-press-versus-president/

Original reporting

Corrections, findings & records

Archived copies

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