Who paid for the dossier: CNN "conspiracy" vs. WaPo report

19 OCT 2017 · CNN, The Washington Post

■ The pieces

CNN (analysis): "On Trump dossier, the President just suggested the FBI, Democrats and Russia might all be co-conspirators" — Chris Cillizza (2017-10-19)https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/politics/donald-trump-conspiracy-dossier/index.html
Washington Post: "Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier" — Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett, Rosalind Helderman (2017-10-24)https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html

■ What they show

After Trump tweeted asking whether Russia, the FBI or the Democrats had paid for the Steele dossier, a CNN analysis by Chris Cillizza described the tweet as a conspiracy theory; CNN's feed carried it under the short headline "President floats conspiracy theories". Five days later the Washington Post reported that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had funded, through a law firm, the research that produced the dossier.

■ The other side

The Post's report confirmed the Democratic funding but showed no payment by Russia or the FBI, and Cillizza's piece was labeled analysis. The "floats conspiracy theories" wording survives only in a third-party copy of CNN's RSS feed (cnnnewsbreaking.blogspot.com).

Who it helped: DemocratsDismissed as conspiracy what was confirmed days later.

■ Why it's here

This exhibit is filed under Subversion, not graded as a lie. What subversion means →