Welp.
BuzzFeed’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day just got worse as the New York Times is reporting that the prosecutors in the special counsel’s office are saying that Michale Cohen “never implied that the president had pressured him to lie to Congress”:
New York Times throws a bit of cold water on BuzzFeed's explosive — and now seriously challenged — report that Trump instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress: https://t.co/9N7MiHs7et pic.twitter.com/7FJFT9D8fW
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
“Toast”:
Buzzfeed is toast. https://t.co/0JJacWcmUJ
— Michael Walsh (@dkahanerules) January 19, 2019
And Ronan Farrow piled on as well, saying his source repeatedly disputed “the idea that Trump directly issued orders of that kind”:
I can’t speak to Buzzfeed’s sourcing, but, for what it’s worth, I declined to run with parts of the narrative they conveyed based on a source central to the story repeatedly disputing the idea that Trump directly issued orders of that kind.
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 19, 2019
L. O. L.
And if THIS guy passes on a story… https://t.co/VkQw8J99dB
— … (@jtLOL) January 19, 2019
As Glenn Greenwald pointed out, ABC News’ John Santucci also disputed the BuzzFeed scoop earlier in the day:
In addition to @RonanFarrow now saying he declined to run parts of the BuzzFeed story, here's ABC News' @Santucci yesterday calling into serious question a major claim of that story: https://t.co/0oo9oE2dmU https://t.co/Xj6MFZRg58
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2019
From Santucci:
FWIW in all our reporting I haven’t found any in the Trump Org that have met with or been interviewed by Mueller. https://t.co/U4eV1MZc8p
— John Santucci (@Santucci) January 18, 2019
And here’s some very good criticism of cable news from the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple who asks why cable news channels spent so much time today on a story they couldn’t confirm:
All day long, the major cable networks and BuzzFeed's print competitors asserted that they couldn't independently confirm the BuzzFeed reporting, leaving BuzzFeed alone with its sources. 2/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
As I wrote yesterday, there've been other controversial enduring or "permanent exclusives" of late, including Bloomberg China hack piece, Cohen-in-Prague and Assange-Manafort. https://t.co/7cfJ8YrJt9 3/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
As I wrote yesterday, there've been other controversial enduring or "permanent exclusives" of late, including Bloomberg China hack piece, Cohen-in-Prague and Assange-Manafort. https://t.co/7cfJ8YrJt9 3/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
Despite the president's claims that the entire media is arrayed against him, the absence of a pile-on with respect to these stories indicates otherwise — that media organizations actually have their own, independent reportorial standards! 4/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
Cable news, though, remains a significant problem. I watched mostly CNN and MSNBC today, and even though both declared that they couldn't independently confirm the BuzzFeed reporting, they filled their airwaves with chatter about the story. 5/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
I am not saying that the BuzzFeed report is definitively wrong — merely that if the cable news networks can't confirm something, is it too much to ask that they spend the day chatting about stories that they CAN confirm? 6/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
Now, the cable-news position is undoubtedly that, well, everyone was talking about it, so we covered it. But that's a tautological proposition: Everyone was talking about it in large part because cable news was programming it. 7/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 19, 2019
***
Related:
UPDATE 2: Ben Smith responds to the Special Counsel's Office: 'We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it' https://t.co/yLOY3TGql7
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 19, 2019
UPDATE: BuzzFeed responds to the Special Counsel's Office: 'We remain confident in the accuracy of our report' https://t.co/yLOY3TY1JH
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 19, 2019
GAME OVER: Special Counsel's office disputes BuzzFeed News report on Michael Cohen https://t.co/yLOY3TY1JH
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 19, 2019
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