Nate Silver thinks BuzzFeed's publication of the Steele dossier was a 'good journalistic choice'

If you think back to last January, you might remember the night that BuzzFeed decided to do what no other media outlet would do despite all the buzz: it published, in its entirety, the Trump dossier compiled by Christopher Steele and paid for by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

What you probably don’t remember is the furious hype surrounding it. Here’s are a few tweets from that day (before BuzzFeed published the dossier) to give some context:

CNN now reporting that Russian spies claim to have personal and financial information that compromises Donald Trump.

— Matt Viser (@mviser) January 10, 2017

How are we going to have an inauguration next week? I mean, really. I need to know more about this CNN story on Trump and the Russians…

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) January 10, 2017

I don't want to be dramatic, but just FYI, the biggest scandal in American political history may be breaking as we speak…. https://t.co/Io1wWd8AYE

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 10, 2017

It is impossible to overstate the significance, if true, of Russia possessing compromising info of 'personal & financial nature' on Trump

— Ken Gude (@KenGude) January 10, 2017

CNN might have had the story, but BuzzFeed went ahead and published the “pee pee tape” dossier itself, with editor-in-chief Ben Smith noting (after publication) that there was “serious reason to doubt the allegations” contained within and that none of it had been verified.

Nate Silver, founder and editor of FiveThirtyEight, somehow thinks BuzzFeed’s decision to print what we now know to be opposition research by the Democrats and the Clinton campaign holds up.

There you have it. The media has zero issues publishing unverified and slanderous accusations that do nothing but add to confusion. One of the checks and balances to our system is a free press that is unbiased, moral, honest, and refuses to allow themselves to be used as pawns. https://t.co/HsMI4ss4go

— Dammit Man (@baileylewis23) February 3, 2018

https://twitter.com/dindunuffinyt/status/959854008469921792

https://twitter.com/Russell10515059/status/959831367537143808

In a world inundated with memetic propaganda, nothing would be more refreshing than real journalism. That wasn't and this defense of it is only more obfuscation. Lessons of #MemoDay https://t.co/z7YwfnS3CN

— Austere Curator of Media Malfunction (@rreactor) February 3, 2018

It's also done untold damage to the credibility of the Russia investigation, no matter how much people want to pretend otherwise, so maybe not. https://t.co/Y5RduPJzOO

— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) February 3, 2018

Buzzfeed will end up paying millions in defense fees alone due to the defamatory nature of the dossier. https://t.co/1e3nfle9Y4

— Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) February 3, 2018

https://twitter.com/PowerElement/status/959632986336579584

Well, BuzzFeed had to have made a buck or two off of the “Failing Pile of Garbage” T-shirts it sold after Trump weighed in.