Journalism

A day after press reports of new revelations in the Russia investigation, the Justice Department warned Americans in an official statement to be skeptical of reports that rely on information from anonymous sources. The warning came seemingly out of nowhere, and did not gesture toward any report in particular. But it did come in the midst of a two-day running twitter rant from President Donald Trump about the Russia investigation.

On the night of June 15, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein released the following statement: "Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous 'officials,' particularly when they do not identify the country — let alone the branch or agency of government — with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated. Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. The Department of Justice has a long-standing policy to neither confirm or deny such allegations." Although Rosenstein didn’t mention any specific media reports, it appears it could be in response to a Washington Post story published June 14, alleging that the special counsel in the Russia probe is investigating President Trump for potential obstruction of justice, related to his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey. The story relies on information from five anonymous officials, without mentioning what agencies they work for or what level of seniority they have. But, given the succession and nature of recent leaks, the statement could also be in anticipation of a story that will break soon, one that the Department of Justice was notified of, and decided to preempt this way.

Kellyanne Conway on June 16 seemed to accuse the media of fomenting the kind of anger that led James T. Hodgkinson to embark on a shooting rampage at a baseball practice for congressional Republicans two days earlier. Appearing on “Fox & Friends,” the counselor to the president stopped short of directly blaming the press for the attack. But Conway came close, as she identified various factors that she said could have contributed to the violence.

“Look, this is also the natural byproduct if you have images of the president being shot in rapper's videos, being assassinated in a production there in New York City, the picture of a severed head,” Conway said. This was her commentary on the media: "I did a really clever thing: I went back and looked at exactly what was being discussed on all the TV shows, except yours, at 7:09 a.m. on Wednesday, when this happened, and it's a really curious exercise. Because as Steve Scalise was fighting for his life and crawling into right field in a trail of blood, you should go back and see what people were saying about the president and Republicans at that very moment." Others, like former Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, have pointed fingers at the media, but Conway's remarks represent a first from a White House official.

[Commentary] At the close of June 15’s broadcast of CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley took aim at both sides of the political spectrum — and the leaders and talking heads who inhabit them — regarding overheated rhetoric that is now in the spotlight in the wake of the Congressional baseball shooting. “Too many leaders and political commentators who set an example for us to follow have led us into an abyss of violent rhetoric that has, it should be no surprise, has led us to violence,” Pelley noted. “As children, we’re taught words will never hurt me,” the anchor stated. “But when you think about it, violence almost always begins with words. In Twitter world, we’ve come to believe that our first thought, is our best thought. It’s past time for all of us — presidents, politicians, reporters, citizens, all of us — to pause, to think again.”

The New York Times issued a correction to an editorial after it was widely criticized for incorrectly linking the 2011 shooting of Rep Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) to a map circulated by Sarah Palin's political action committee which showed certain electoral districts under crosshairs. "An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords," the Times' correction said. "In fact, no such link was established." In a tweet, the Times further added, "We're sorry about this and we appreciate that our readers called us on the mistake."

The editorial, titled "America's Lethal Politics," implied that the man who shot Giffords, Jared Lee Loughner, was inspired by Palin's map. It further claimed that in the shooting of Rep Steve Scalise (R-LA) and several others at a practice for a Congressional baseball game there was "no sign of incitement as direct as in the Giffords attack."

President Donald Trump boasted about his "very powerful" use of Twitter, saying that it allowed him to sidestep the news media and deliver his message directly to supporters. "The Fake News Media hates when I use what has turned out to be my very powerful Social Media — over 100 million people! I can go around them," he tweeted. President Trump has long used Twitter to comment on the news and announce policy decisions. He has argued that the social media site allows him to skirt traditional news sources that he claims treat him unfairly.

In a speech on the House floor, House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) argued that the mainstream media’s critical coverage of President Donald Trump has fed what he described as “an environment of hatred and violence.” “We must speak truth to the powerful liberal media,” Rep Smith said. “The media’s constant barrage of personal attacks can incite someone to take irrational actions.” He pointed to a Facebook post from the shooter that said, “It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co." “That’s not much different from the tone of many media articles,” Smith said. “The American people deserve better than a biased media. For the sake of our country, let’s hope they will drop their abusive language.”

Rep Smith is also the chairman of the Media Fairness Caucus, an effort to “examine the causes of one-sided reporting, develop strategies to combat media bias, promote an open dialogue between members of the media and elected officials, and remind the media of their profound obligation to provide the American people with the facts.” Rep Smith delivers House floor speeches on a near-weekly basis to criticize the mainstream media.

Political campaigns can manipulate elections by spending as little as $400,000 on fake news and propaganda, according to a new report that analyzes the costs of swaying public opinion through the spread of misinformation online. The report from Trend Micro, a cybersecurity firm, said it also costs just $55,000 to discredit a journalist and $200,000 to instigate a street protest based on false news, shining a light on how easy it has become for cyber propaganda to produce real-world outcomes.

The Fake News Machine research paper comes at a time of increasing concern across the globe about the hacking of elections and the ways that fake news on social media has manipulated voters. The report delves into the underground marketplaces that can allow campaigns, political parties, private companies and other entities to strategically create and distribute fake content to shift public perceptions.

In this endless cycle of breaking political headlines, television news is facing its biggest moment of opportunity since Fox News Channel and MSNBC came on the scene 21 years ago. The competitive fervor among the Big Three to turn these added eyeballs into regular viewers is further stoked by the fact that the longtime market leader — Fox News — is vulnerable after a year of turmoil on both sides of the camera. The pervasiveness of headlines and commentary online and on social media platforms has unquestionably stepped up the tempo for cable news.

“We are just working at a different pace now,” says Bret Baier, Fox News' chielf political anchor. “It’s not just this administration but our society. People are now used to absorbing things in a nanosecond, and they expect their 24-hour cable news to be as fast as they are.”

Where’s the line between covering a scoundrel as a news figure and giving him a promotional platform? The question has consumed Megyn Kelly the week of June 12, after she showed a trailer of her coming feature on NBC about Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who has questioned whether the Sandy Hook school massacre truly happened and asserted that Sept 11 was an inside job.

“#ShameOnNBC” and “#ShameOnMegynKelly” campaigns broke out across Twitter, including from some Sandy Hook parents; JPMorgan Chase pulled its advertising, and Sandy Hook Promise, a group founded by Sandy Hook parents to prevent gun-related deaths, canceled Kelly’s planned appearance at its annual gala this week. Coming on only the third episode of her new NBC newsmagazine, “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly,” the segment has become, as the technical television term goes, a hot mess.

[Commentary] On June 12 I was speaking to a veteran Senate reporter about the increasing number of journalists flooding the halls of the Capitol. This reporter felt that the crowd size would “inevitably” lead to the end of the open press access the media has long enjoyed. This reporter was not the first that I’d heard that from. It was not the first time that I’d thought about it, either.

There’s a vague sense among many members of the Capitol Hill press corps that some sort of crackdown is coming and that the incredible access to national lawmakers that reporters enjoy could be curtailed. If senators truly are concerned about the size of reporter mobs and their safety, they could be more forthcoming with information about, say, their health care bill, perhaps with regular press conferences. Reporters wouldn’t have to be quite so creative in their methods, then.