Fake news: Memos tie Trump to Russia

[seer]

Meet the new boss, he's not like the old boss!

[Mountain Man]

This is getting better and better. After Trump slammed CNN as a fake news organization at the press conference, CNN releases a statement desperately trying to distance themselves from the Buzzfeed memos:

Source: @CNNPR

https://twitter.com/cnnpr/status/819237300668399616

© Copyright Original Source

And now Buzzfeed is trying to avoid a feud with CNN after the network's harsh criticism of Buzzfeed's ethics...

That's right, Trump actually has the media turning on each other! Amazing!

[Sparko]

This is getting better and better. After Trump slammed CNN as a fake news organization at the press conference, CNN releases a statement desperately trying to distance themselves from the Buzzfeed memos:

Source: @CNNPR

https://twitter.com/cnnpr/status/819237300668399616

© Copyright Original Source

And now Buzzfeed is trying to avoid a feud with CNN after the network's harsh criticism of Buzzfeed's ethics...

That's right, Trump actually has the media turning on each other! Amazing!

They are like a bunch of old women gossiping. "Oh Sally! Did you hear about Trump? Why, I heard he had girls pee on the bed Obama slept in! YES! It must be true because Donna's friend, Marsha, her gardener said her friend who works in the hotel saw it with her very own eyes!"

[Mountain Man]

They are like a bunch of old women gossiping. "Oh Sally! Did you hear about Trump? Why, I heard he had girls pee on the bed Obama slept in! YES! It must be true because Donna's friend, Marsha, her gardener said her friend who works in the hotel saw it with her very own eyes!"

Trump's answer to these accusations was awesome. He gave a long explanation about how any time a high profile guest travels anywhere in the world, especially to places like Russia, you just have to assume there are cameras all over your hotel room recording your every move, and that he's constantly telling people he travels with "Don't do anything you don't want to see on TV." After spending several minutes on that answer, he concluded by saying, "Besides, I'm a germaphobe. I really am! I would never do anything like that. It's disgusting." This got a good-natured laugh from the reporters.

[One Bad Pig]

I listened to most of Trump's press conference today, and he handled himself like a pro. Very calm and cool, well-spoken, and he easily shut down every reporter who tried to get any mileage out of the false allegations. And he had fewer "um's" and "ah's" in 20-minutes than Obama has in a single sentence.

Yeah, Trump is never at a loss for words. Sometimes I think he slips in the occasional outlandish statement just to give the press a rabbit trail to follow (most recently, about the alleged lack of gowns in the DC area).

[Mountain Man]

CNN continues to play the "It wasn't us, it was all Buzzfeed's fault!" game. i don't know if I've ever seen them so desperate to salvage their credibility.

Source: Breitbart

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/...ot-publish-it/

© Copyright Original Source

Of course anybody who's read the original report knows they reported on the memos earnestly, as if there was a good chance the information was credible. Here are the opening paragraphs from CNN's original report:

Source: CNN.com

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politi...report-russia/

© Copyright Original Source

Saying that "The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations" certainly makes it sound like this report is actionable, doesn't it? And saying that they "[have] not confirmed many of the essential details in the memos" makes it sound like other details were confirmed, which is a far cry from the truth that none of the details, essential or otherwise, were confirmed at the time.

And now we're hearing that the Michael Cohen mentioned in the memos is not Trump's attorney but someone from a different country who happened to have the same name.

[Cerebrum123]

CNN continues to play the "It wasn't us, it was all Buzzfeed's fault!" game. i don't know if I've ever seen them so desperate to salvage their credibility.

Source: Breitbart

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/...ot-publish-it/

© Copyright Original Source

Of course anybody who's read the original report knows they reported on the memos earnestly, as if there was a good chance the information was credible. Here are the opening paragraphs from CNN's original report:

Source: CNN.com

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politi...report-russia/

© Copyright Original Source

Saying that "The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations" certainly makes it sound like this report is actionable, doesn't it? And saying that they "[have] not confirmed many of the essential details in the memos" makes it sound like other details were confirmed, which is a far cry from the truth that none of the details, essential or otherwise, were confirmed at the time.

And now we're hearing that the Michael Cohen mentioned in the memos is not Trump's attorney but someone from a different country who happened to have the same name.

It's even more irresponsible for CNN to have put that information on their site without checking into it further. So much for them being a source of "real news*".

*I didn't really count them as one anyway, but still.

[Bisto]

(...) Under that guideline someone could say that Trump is really a bunch of Ninja Squirrel Assassins in a human suit and due to the seriousness of such an allegation if true it must be officially investigated.

Man. The vote is over. I can't believe you and Sparko went forward with that plan anyway.

[Mountain Man]

Hmmm...

Source: Breitbart

The UK Daily Mail on Wednesday reported that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) pushed the dossier full of unverified claims about Donald Trump to the FBI:http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...tel-community/

© Copyright Original Source

[Jedidiah]

John McCain is junk. I suspect him of being a traitorous anti American.

[Mountain Man]

Ha! Now MSNBC is trying to prop up its brand by going after Buzzfeed!

Source: Breitbart

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/...hed-fake-news/

© Copyright Original Source

I like how Ben Smith laments that it used to be easier to get away with this sort of thing before the internet.

I suspect Buzzfeed thought they would get a lot more mileage out of this story and that their allies in the media would have their back. Instead the report was immediately debunked, Trump owned today's press conference, and Buzzfeed is being thrown under the bus by their media allies. In short, Ben Smith is having a very bad day.

[rogue06]

Or earlier with charges back in 1980 that the elder George Bush went to Europe to meet with Iranian leaders to schedule an October Surprise (concerning the release of 52 Americans held hostage by Iran). Even after being completely debunked Democrats were still calling for investigations not based on the facts but on the "seriousness" of the charges. Under that guideline someone could say that Trump is really a bunch of Ninja Squirrel Assassins in a human suit and due to the seriousness of such an allegation if true it must be officially investigated.

On one of the MSM evening news broadcasts I heard a Congressman make the same sort of argument concerning rumors (which everyone agrees are unsubstantiated), that the Russians have stuff on Trump that they're going to use to blackmail him with, that was made about Bush which was forget the fact that there is no evidence and preliminary investigations found the story to be full of holes, this needs to be investigated because of the seriousness of the allegation.

I'm sure he would have had the same opinion if Hillary won and someone claimed without a shred of evidence that she had Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds knocked off. We need an official investigation because of the seriousness of the charge.

[elam]

On one of the MSM evening news broadcasts I heard a Congressman make the same sort of argument concerning rumors (which everyone agrees are unsubstantiated), that the Russians have stuff on Trump that they're going to use to blackmail him with, that was made about Bush which was forget the fact that there is no evidence and preliminary investigations found the story to be full of holes, this needs to be investigated because of the seriousness of the allegation.

I'm sure he would have had the same opinion if Hillary won and someone claimed without a shred of evidence that she had Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds knocked off. We need an official investigation because of the seriousness of the charge.

If I was Donald, after the inauguration, I'd wait a week or so and than announce a FBI investigation into unAmerican activities by certain people, even within his own party!

That should shake things up a bit, and Donald could drag the investigation out for the next four years...to keep McCain and Trump's other enemies in check...

It is rumoured (suggested in some reports) that McCain and other anti-Trump Republican's conspired to disseminate the dozier knowing it to be fake and even invented a fictitious background story (MI6 etc) to give the dozier credabiity....

One commentator observed that the debunking of this latest fake news has put the intelligence agencies and news portals on the back foot = their credibility has been totally compromised...

[Mountain Man]

You can get a glimpse at what the media had planned with this early report from Esquire with its mocking "Haha! We've really got him• Edited by a Moderator • now!" tone:

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics...ussia-twitter/

I don't think liberals were expecting this story to blow up in their faces, at least not as quickly and with the volatility that it did. This was THE story early yesterday morning. I didn't hear a peep about it this morning on my drive in to work. I think we might be looking at the biggest narrative backfire since Hillary's speechwriter came up with that "basket of deplorables" line.

[firstfloor]

Not sure if the memos link had been listed above:
https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...legations.html