It has been over a week since the New York Times published a story that now former FBI director James Comey allegedly wrote a memorandum documenting a conversation he had with President Trump in the oval office, in which Trump mentioned closing the Russia investigation. I have written on this allegation before. However, I think it far past time to mention one minor fact about this story. No one has a copy of this memorandum.
The New York Times does not have a copy of this memorandum. In fact, they did not have a copy of it on May 16, 2017, the night they ran the original story. Instead, the content of the alleged memo was read out loud over the phone to a New York Times reporter by an anonymous source.
How does the New York Times know whether the alleged memorandum even exists? Presuming it does, for which there is still no evidence, how does the Times know whether the content of the memo was read correctly by the anonymous source? Did the Times make any effort to obtain a copy of the memorandum before publishing an article containing allegations of wrongdoing by President Trump? Perhaps the real question is whether the Times concerns itself with the accuracy of information when confronted with the possibility of publishing harmful story’s about Donald Trump? The answer to all of the above questions is an emphatic no.
As if the above circumstances were not outrageous enough, within two hours CNN published a story which stated, “CNN has independently confirmed the existence of the Comey memo.” However, how can CNN independently confirm the existence of a memo that
- the New York Times does not itself have; and
- the alleged content of which was leaked by a source whose identity remains unknown?
The fact that White House officials have yet to dispute that the alleged conversation took place is no excuse. As a media outlet, the Times has an ethical obligation to ensure a story’s content has been firmly vetted to the best of their ability. Instead, we are witnessing a media whose eagerness to publish dirt on President Trump clouds out traditional concerns of accuracy and proper vetting.
Mainstream media outlets should know that ordinary Americans understand what is going on. Some of us, like myself, are infuriated. I for one am willing to go to extreme measures to expose the unethical news practices currently employed by outlets formerly considered legitimate. It’s why during the primaries I made an offer to pay any woman $5,000 to make a false accusation of sexual harassment against then candidate Trump on live TV, the later retraction of would have demonstrated the eagerness of the mainstream media to publish any story so long as it’s harmful to Donald Trump.
Obviously, the above offer has expired. Luckily for the mainstream media, my show is yet to be popular enough to allow such offers to reach a sufficiently wide enough audience. However, the bad news for CNN and MSNBC is my show is growing. Such offers will come again.
So as 2020 rolls around, keep one thing in mind mainstream media. There are those of us who are watching. One day a reckoning will come and the remaining credibility that you currently enjoy will be a distant memory.