Jonathan Turley spots WaPo journo setting a 'new level of denial' over the Durham report

Doug P. | 10:08 AM on May 18, 2023

The release of the Durham report made it clear that years of “Trump/Russia collusion” hyperventilating from Democrats and all across the media landscape was, ironically, the kind of a disinformation campaign that likely made Putin laugh in approval. However, after years of spreading the lies and being awarded Pulitzers for reporting the lies like dutiful narrative pushers, some in the media aren’t about to let it go.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley spotted yet another example courtesy of a Washington Post “journalist”:

With the release of the Durham Report, the media went into total spin mode. However, the Washington Post (which won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Russian collusion) set a new level of denial with a column by Philip Bump…https://t.co/EiAuAuQj37

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 18, 2023

…Bump not only quotes Hillary Clinton on how the allegations against her campaign is possible "Russian disinformation," Bump actually makes one last pitch that there might have been Russian collusion after all.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 18, 2023

Incredible. We shouldn’t be surprised, and yet here we are.

The hardest thing for a journalist like Bump to do is admit he is wrong.

— Jeff Cunningham (@cunninghamjeff) May 18, 2023

Whenever another media lie gets called out, often their follow-up is “there’s still a good chance it might be true.” If they were honest there wouldn’t be retractions and Pulitzers being rescinded, but that’s never going to happen.

For example, Bump was one of those who made the false claims that Attorney General Bill Barr cleared Lafayette Park for a photo op for Trump. He also claimed that Barr lied in his denial of the use of tear gas by federal agents. Bump wrote the Washington Post column titled “Attorney General Bill Barr’s Dishonest Defense of Clearing of Lafayette Square.” Not only did the Post refer to the “debunked claim” that no tear gas was used by the federal government, but goes on to state:

“It is the job of the media to tell the truth. The truth is that Barr’s arguments about the events of last Monday collapse under scrutiny and that his flat assertion that there was no link between clearing the square and Trump’s photo op should be treated with the same skepticism that his claims about the use of tear gas earns.”

It turns out that both assertions were true. Bump and others were pushing a conspiracy theory and exhibited little interested in confirming the facts. (I testified in Congress not long after the clearing of the area and stated that the conspiracy theory was already contradicted by the available evidence).

Much of the media seems to think their job is to forward Democrat narratives without question, which is their definition of “truth” — and that’s the problem.

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