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Tuesday, March 16, 2021

UPDATED: The REAL Story

I avoid stories that I can't possibly keep up with, but this is one you've all read about and which is worth pointing to. I'm talking about the Fake News--or maybe I should just come out and say Hoax Journalism--about Trump's supposed "obstruction" in his phone call to the GA Secretary of State's lead investigator. The WaPo, which ran with the story has, as you know, tried to slip a retraction past John Q. Public after their fraud was exposed by the WSJ--I won't be resubscribing to the WSJ, but a hat tip to them nevertheless.

Now enterprising journalists are taking a closer look to see what this means. Obviously, the fact that the Dems actually referred to this hoax at their Hoax Impeachment 2.0 is a rather big part of the story--what the hell kind of "impeachment" is it that goes with unverified newspaper articles attributed to anonymous sources? But that may be only part of the bigger picture.

Here's a tweet by the Washington Examiner's Beckett Adams that points toward that bigger picture:



The link in the tweet, of course, is to Adams' full article on this story. Here's what he's referring, citing chapter and verse of the "news" organizations that were in on the hoax:


NBC News reported it “confirmed The Post’s characterization of the Dec. 23 call through a source familiar with the conversation.”

USA Today claimed a “Georgia official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters confirmed the details of the call.”

ABC News reported: "President Donald Trump phoned a chief investigator in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office asking the official to 'find the fraud' and telling this person they would be a 'national hero' for it, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News."

PBS NewsHour and CNN likewise seemingly claimed they independently “confirmed” the story through their own anonymous sources.

But Trump never said those things. The sources either were mistaken or lying.


Read the whole article to get up to speed on all the details.

The bottom line appears to be something along these lines: Five separate "news" organizations "confirmed" that the moon is made from green cheese. Funny how that works. In their own interests, it would seem to me, they should reveal who lied to them--that is, if that's what actually happened.

In the meantime, Sarah Lee bakes the story just right at The Federalist--The Story of the WaPo 'Scoop' and the Discovery of the Trump Recording Is So Much Worse Than It Appears and GA's Sec of State Ofc Has Some Explaining to Do:


That’s incredibly significant, and not just from a media malfeasance perspective (but that’s, of course, part of it). Here’s why: it was reported in January that Georgia State officials didn’t think a recording of the call existed, which is presumably why WaPo took bad quotes from a source they wouldn’t name but who was familiar with the conversation. They wanted the story and didn’t have the recording, so they reported what they were told. Not particularly impressive journalism.

That was readily apparent after the Wall Street Journal got their hands on the recording and published it last week, proving that the anonymous source essentially made up quotes and attributed them to the former president. And where was this recording discovered? In the trash folder on a device belonging to the lead investigator in the Secretary of State’s office, the very person Trump called.

Back in January, “state officials said they did not believe that a recording existed,” the Post reports. “Officials located the recording on a trash folder on Watson’s device while responding to a public records request, according to a person familiar with the situation.”

What that means, of course, is that not only did the conversation exist in a recording, the lead investigator was presumably aware of it and apparently tried to get rid of it (perhaps innocently, in fairness). But worse, she never tried to correct the record as WaPo and many other outlets misreported the details. Which is all bad enough; but when the investigation into whether Trump had engaged in obstruction is factored in, well, it lends credence to something Trump has been claiming for some time: there’s a witch hunt afoot and he’s the target.


That "investigator", Frances Watson, should be made to answer some questions. Or maybe that's just me.

UPDATE: H/T Commenter Mojlnir. Will this story have legs? Redstate has the story:


Once it became obvious that the Washington Post had the Piltdown Man of journalism on its hands (read The Washington Post Quietly Corrects Months-Old Propaganda About Trump’s GA Call), it had to burn its source or admit that it didn’t have one.

The Washington Post reported on the substance of Trump’s Dec. 23 call in January, describing him saying that Watson should “find the fraud” and that she would be a “national hero,” based on an account from Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state, whom Watson briefed on his comments.

Fuchs is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s former campaign manager, both for his successful 2015 run for the Georgia legislature and his 2018 run for Secretary of State. She’ll have to answer for her own motives in making up a conversation and seeking out a national media outlet to distribute the falsehood. Just joking. Of course, she won’t have to answer for squat because “believe women” and #OrangeManBad. I’d just note that if you check the story archive of Amy Gardner, it looks like Gardner was using Fuchs for stories for some months. And there is also the small matter of how the only recording of this call was deleted and discovered in a computer “trash” folder. Because you delete copies of phone calls from the President of the United States to state election functionaries all the time, but, I suspect, any innate sense of curiosity over this will be suppressed.

Now that the Washington Post has burned Fuchs down, there is still unresolved business. NBC, ABC, USA Today, and CNN all claim to have independently verified Fuchs’s story (read The Real Scandal Behind the Washington Post-Trump Scandal).


23 comments:

  1. "That "investigator", Frances Watson, should be made to answer some questions. Or maybe that's just me."

    Agreed. But where will we find someone to ask the questions? Not in Georgia, apparently.

    ReplyDelete
  2. More: https://redstate.com/streiff/2021/03/16/the-washington-post-has-outed-their-source-for-the-bogus-trump-phone-call-story-and-its-time-for-cnn-and-others-to-do-the-same-n344474

    ReplyDelete
  3. The greatest contribution of Donald John Trump to the republic will in the final analysis probably be his exposure of the corporate media's mendacity. You should follow Michael Malice on Twitter for his takes on the damage that has been done to the Cathedral over the last 5 years. It is severe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Along the same lines... Today Glenn Greenwald came out with a terrific article on Substack.

    https://greenwald.substack.com/p/how-do-big-media-outlets-so-often?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzk1NjcxNiwicG9zdF9pZCI6MzM3ODI2MTAsIl8iOiJTbVdRbCIsImlhdCI6MTYxNTkyNTUxMiwiZXhwIjoxNjE1OTI5MTEyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTI4NjYyIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9._MlahMs5lAJPAp3en64mliW06ld5RnuwiELvMCSJ7-c

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Greenwald never writes briefly, but for those who have the will to wade through this, it's devastating in what it says about America's public square.

      Delete
    2. True Mark. Brevity isn't one of G.G.'s strong suits. See he's a fairly regular contributor on Fox News now. I like it.

      Delete
    3. It's strange.

      I skimmed a few hundred accompanying comments to GG's article... nothing about the topic of MSM lies..

      All the comments are arguing whether Tucker is a white supremacist or not...

      Wondering who GG's readership is...

      Frank

      Delete
    4. @Frank
      "Wondering who GG's readership is..."

      Rhetorical question?

      Delete
  5. Just more media malfeasance to go along with Uber corruption @ the top levels of the govt: DoJ/FBI - hell, the FBI is now the Gestapo arm of the Dimwit Party - CIA - spying on American citizens & allegedly involved in stealing the 2020 election...I could go on but my finger’s’ll get tired.

    For the past how many years we’ve been told lie after lie after lie after lie - from both “official” sources perpetuated by a compliant media - with no pushback/recourse. The operatives who fomented a coup of a dutifully elected president are now adjunct professors @ GW Law School. Others are making six figures as commentators on the alphabet networks. Illegal aliens are given more due process than actual citizens.

    And what has/does the Republican Party do about all this?

    Absolutely nothing.

    Boarwild

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yesterday, a judge here in GA took a motion under consideration to unseal some or all of the Fulton County ballots, which was a huge producer for Biden. These ballots haven't been audited at all, as the 'state wide' audit conducted by the Sec of State's office only audited a few places deemed safe- even then they found some large irregularities.

    https://www.ajc.com/politics/election/judge-may-unseal-fulton-absentee-ballots-for-fraud-investigation/3IPZKDO3BJGRRGVFTEW4MLLAKQ/

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wrote about Frances Watson in my blog article titled How long did the imaginary burst waterpipe delay the ballot-counting?

    Watson misinformed a US District Court about the complaint of the Republican poll-watchers who were told falsely that the vote-counting in Atlanta was suspended until morning.

    In particular, Watson misinformed the US District Court about when the complaint was made and about the substance of the complaint.

    Watson is not a credible person, but Watson was the Chief Investigator for Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger was a fool to trust Watson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Watson was full of spite and vinegar from the get go... aligned with S.o.S. Brad Raffenburger as Never Trumpers.

      Delete
    2. I don't think Brad Raffensperger was a fool at all...more of a co-conspirator! GA resident here, who doesn't trust the guy at all. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Brad didn't coach Watson during witness prep. Something's happened with Kemp and Brad that's strange. Hopefully it will all come out.

      Delete
  8. Sounds like a hit by Raffensperger.

    Per Redstate WP source was his former campaign manager.

    “Fuchs is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s former campaign manager, both for his successful 2015 run for the Georgia legislature and his 2018 run for Secretary of State. “

    ReplyDelete
  9. What was Democrat Senator Harry Reid’s response when called out for lying about Romney not paying taxes for 10 years, of which he did on the Senate floor and elsewhere?

    “I don’t regret that at all ... Romney didn’t win did he?“

    It’s first impressions that count, truth be damned.

    Besides, nothing ever happens. Nothing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep TexasDude; especially when you have the MSM as a 50,000 watt blowtorch.

      Delete
    2. I love that exercise machine that Reid had, you know the one that injured him. Well, it got him out of the Senate didn't it. /s

      rob s

      Delete
    3. "Besides, nothing ever happens. Nothing."

      Nothing happened when kings and nobles ruled the world..

      Nowadays we call kings and nobles by another name ... "presidents and congress people"...

      Frank

      Delete
  10. Perhaps off topic, but interesting on the fake news front: Reuters reports Biden says 'Putin will pay a price' for trying to swing the 2020 presidential election to Trump. What in the heck is he talking about?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Putin is nationalist and anti-globalist. Therefore our globalist elite ruling class is determined to bring him to heel, but doesn't want to explain that dynamic to the country. So they need an excuse for waging war on Russia.

      Delete
    2. Biden's an idiot.

      If I were he, why would I focus anybody on 'swinging' the 2020 election, let alone on another fake Russia narrative? I would go anywhere but there.

      He's lucky he 'won'.

      Delete
  11. OT

    I wonder what John Durham's up to? Having lunch and a chit chat with Merrick Garland?

    ReplyDelete