October 22, 2019

Rachel Maddow pointed out last night that the New York Times, which spewed countless stories about Hillary Clinton's emails, very quietly reports the final email investigation report deep on an inside page -- because it found Clinton did nothing wrong. And she rips them for it -- as every principled journalist should, but won't.

She does a remarkable job using a deluge of facts pointing out how the Times, and the media organizations that followed their lead, did such a bad job covering the misinformation that flooded the 2016 campaign. More importantly, the Russians are doing the exact same thing today, and the media is still unprepared to defend our democracy. (The Russians aren't just going after Joe Biden, they're working on social media to deliberately cause division in the Democratic primary.)

Steve Benen wrote on the MaddowBlog:

But the Times’ use of the word “quiet” struck me as notable, in large part because the adjective reflects an editorial choice. The State Department’s findings don’t have to be “quiet”; they only go unnoticed if major news organizations – many of which obsessively told American voters that email server protocols were a pressing national issue of historic importance – decide that the revelations don’t much matter.

And given the circumstances, I can appreciate why some are tempted to sheepishly look the other way. The political world made a ridiculous mistake in 2016 and the consequences of that error will be felt by many for a very long time.

But perhaps that should serve as a reason to pause, take stock, and come to terms with what we’ve learned.

And now, the Times appears to blame Hillary Clinton for the Trump administration's use of private emails!!!

CNN legal analyst Jeff Toobin did apologize yesterday:

But I haven't seen anyone else.

Bad media practices will continue to undermine democracy. Sigh.

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