By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--December 11, 2017
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"Friday was one of the most embarrassing days for the U.S. media in quite a long time. The humiliation orgy was kicked off by CNN, with MSNBC and CBS close behind, with countless pundits, commentators and operatives joining the party throughout the day. By the end of the day, it was clear that several of the nation's largest and most influential news outlets had spread an explosive but completely false news story to millions of people, while refusing to provide any explanation of how it happened."But so far being "embarrassed" hasn't stopped the networks from spreading their lies and likely never will. And don't anybody hold their breath waiting for "an explanation of how it happened" because it is certain to be lies, bigger lies, and more lies. This is how the respected Daily Caller reported on the story under the headline: 'CNN Botches Major 'Bombshell' Alleging Contacts Between Don Jr. And WikiLeaks':
"CNN misreported key details of an offer made to Donald Trump Jr. last year of a batch of stolen Wikileaks documents. "The story, which CNN published on Friday and covered extensively on TV, was touted as the first evidence that the Trump campaign was given a heads-up about documents stolen from Democrats. "But the story appears to have been riddled with errors, while also lacking key context. "Perhaps the most jarring error in the CNN report is the date on which members of the Trump Organization, including Donald Trump and Trump Jr., were sent the email. The network reported that a person named Mike Erickson sent the email on Sept. 4, 2016, with a link to Wikileaks documents as well as a decryption key to access them.
"The email also offered access to emails that had been stolen from former Sec. of State Colin Powell, according to CNN. "But a copy of the email provided to The Daily Caller shows that Erickson sent the email on Sept. 14. "That date is significant because WikiLeaks provided a link to a batch of stolen documents on Sept. 13. The group touted the release of the documents, which were stolen from the DNC and published by Guccifer 2.0. "The email shows that Erickson messaged Trump Jr. stating that "Wikileaks has uploaded another (huge 678 MB) archive of files from the DNC." "It is too big for me to send you by e-mail attachments, but you can download it yourselves," he added, providing a link to the same website cited by Wikileaks the day before. "He also included a link to a decryption key that could be used to access the documents. "The Washington Post first reported on the true date and wording of the Erickson email. "The site that Erickson linked to leads to a page where a file with the same file name referenced in the Wikileaks tweet could be downloaded. "How CNN got its report so wrong is unclear."
"On Saturday night, The Washington Post released a statement. "Dave Weigel relied on an inaccurate image in tweeting about President Trump's rally in Pensacola," the paper's vice president of communications, Kristine Coratti Kelly, said. "When others pointed out the mistake to Weigel, he quickly deleted the tweet. And when he was later addressed by the president on Twitter, he promptly apologized for it.".@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
"Trump has frequently lashed out at media figures in very personal terms. It was not the first time the White House had called for a journalist's firing: In September, after ESPN commentator Jemele Hill called the president a "white supremacist" in a tweet, his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a White House press briefing that it was a "fireable offense." (WaPo) "Earlier Saturday, Trump similarly lashed out at two other media organizations, ABC and CNN, that had issued corrections on stories about Trump in recent days. "Fake News CNN made a vicious and purposeful mistake yesterday. They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his 'mistake'). Watch to see if @CNN fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?" he tweeted."Yada, (time out for cafe latté sip) yada, yada from the STILL lying media.
"A short time later, Weigel quoted Trump's tweet and wrote "Packed to the rafters," attaching a photo that showed hundreds of available seats in the lower and upper levels. He deleted it about 20 minutes later. "Around 5 p.m., Trump addressed Weigel's tweet with his own:That it was "a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post", is another Al Gore type convenient lie. Would anyone know David Weigel if he weren't a WaPo reporter?! This is the real Weigel at work in 2010:"Weigel tweeted back almost immediately. "Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I'd gotten it wrong," Weigel wrote, referring to David Martosko, U.S. political editor of the Daily Mail's website. "Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner." In a later tweet, Weigel wrote: "It was a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post. ..... Very fair to call me out.".@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo! pic.twitter.com/XAblFGh1ob
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
"The Washington Post blogger assigned to cover the conservative beat, has resigned following the leak of emails he wrote disparaging conservatives. (Politico) "Dave offered his resignation and we accepted it," said Kris Coratti, director of communications for the Washington Post."Once again, you called it right, President Trump!
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