Why is the media hiding?
After years of being fixated on the alleged collusion between former President Donald Trump and Russia, mainstream media has either been silent or ignored allegations made by Special Counsel John Durham.
Jason Chaffetz, a former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Fox News digital that traditional media outlets are “more interested in whisper campaigns and rumors than filings from U.S. attorneys.”
Chaffetz went on to point out that if news outlets “got it wrong” — which he emphasized they had — they should “cover the truth with the same vigor.”
Chaffetz, however, said it seemed that “media outlets were so interested in perpetuating a lie they can’t now say they were wrong.”
According to Media Research Cente, evening newscasts from ABC, NBC, and CBS spent a combined 2,634 minutes (43 hours and 54 minutes) through July 20, 2019, covering the Russia collusion investigation. This figure represents “nearly one-fifth (19.5%) of all of these broadcasts’ Trump coverage,” according to analyst Rich Noyes.
This unrelenting coverage is in addition to broadcasts by MSNBC and CNN, who also dedicated significant coverage to the investigation’s developments. In print and digital media, The New York Times and Washington Posts shared the Pulitzer Prize for “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage” in 2018 for their reporting on the alleged Russia interference.
Now, a court filing by Durham — who was appointed during Trump’s administration to investigate the origins of the Russia probe — on Friday (February 11) revealed a tech firm with connections to the Clinton campaign had mined internet data from Trump Towers, then later the White House to “establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia.”
While the filing is substantive, it has hardly received any coverage from the major news networks and publications. Instead, any coverage it does receive from mainstream media downplays its significance.
Critics are taking note.
Newsbusters executive editor Tim Graham wrote, “The networks and major papers avoided touching this news like Durham was a leper.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) also criticized the media, saying in a tweet, “The corrupt corporate media is trying to ignore it & hide the truth,” referring to the lack of coverage about Durham’s damning court filing that points to the Russia investigation being trumped up.
