5 Things About CNN’s Email Story Debacle

1. Sure, any reporter can make a mistake but a mistake of this magnitude speaks volumes about CNN’s bias against Trump. In fact, how many pro-Trump mistakes especially on Russia did CNN make recently? Exactly.
2. Robert Mueller used 15 search warrants to collect 36 electronic devices from Manafort/Gates and generated 400,000 pages of content. He kept on getting more and more warrants to spread a wider net. If he has real stuff on collusion his search would have been much narrower. CNN editors know there is little if any evidence of collusion despite a spying effort which started in June 2016 and despite all other investigations going on this year. Therefore, CNN ran with the story because they wanted it to be true. Basically, CNN going with the story tells us that -they know that- as of now “collusion” is a ghost chase.
3. CNN’s media staffer Brian Stelter says no disciplinary action will be taken against CNN operative Manu Raju who published the report because he followed network standards. Well, if your standards let you run with a story of this magnitude — and dominate hours of your TV programing — without a better vetting process then obviously your standards are very bad.
4. Even if we were to think that Raju made an honest mistake — as a result of CNN’s bias against Trump; its weak editorial standards, and CNN being desperate for evidence of collusion — it does not explain why Raju did not admit on air that he did not see the actual email on which he based his report. Perhaps he knew that saying this would weaken his report. If this is the case he should have held off.
5. CBS tweeted Friday that they “independently confirmed” the news and so did MSNBC. This means that when multiple media agencies “independently confirm” something from “multiple sources” the story is not more credible than if the story is reported by one agency from one source. This also happened days earlier when Reuters, WSJ and Bloomberg all reported that Robert Mueller subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for Trump’s records only to correct the report that the subpoena is for people associated with Trump; not Trump himself.

From last week: Trump’s very good weekend