This is just one example of the continual stream of poor journalism related to US presidential candidate Donald Trump. I do not have an opinion on Trump and I do not defend him. However, when I dig a little deeper than just skimming the news, I consistently find that journalists are unethical or extremely incompetent when reporting him. And nearly every time this results painting a more damning picture of him.
Exhibit one
This is the only US government “comment” on the theft of documents from the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Reuters published it at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-russia-fbi-idUSKCN1051TD, which now redirects to the Reuters homepage:
A U.S. official involved in the investigation said that the classified information collected on the hack so far “indicated beyond a reasonable doubt that it originated in Russia.”
The FBI has made no official statement regarding findings from its investigation into the hack according to a search of their newsroom
Exhibit two
This is what Donald Trump said at the first 2016 presidential debate:
I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC.
How would you fairly and accurately make a report of the above statement? How would you explain it to the public and add insightful analysis?
“Journalism”
Here is how The Economist reported it:
… [he] reckons that the FBI is mistaken when it suggests that Russian hackers targeted the Democratic National Committee’s computers.
What The Economist did was:
- Attributed a comment on deep background from “a U.S. official” to the FBI without supporting documentation
- Used a deep background comment it assumes originated with the FBI to represent a “suggestion” of DNC attack attribution
- Attributed a “[nobody] knows” comment as finding fault (“FBI is mistaken”) with an organization that did not release a statement
The Economist’s reporting here is disingenuous at best.
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