Jason Leopold needs to quit journalism, tomorrow

[Recursion]

This is fucking inexcusable

[shanny]

1. Context.

[oberliner]

2. Mueller investigation goes on the record to dispute BuzzFeed report

In a rare move, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller has gone on the record to dispute the bombshell BuzzFeed report from Thursday night, which claimed that the special counsel has evidence that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

https://www.axios.com/muellers-investigation-goes-on-the-record-to-deny-buzzfeed-report-a07f65a6-611a-42de-adf6-91f337ddfdf1.html

[bobbieinok]

4. Have read axios is very RW. Don't know if that's true

[Apollyonus]

8. It still gives Trump a way to put doubt about the entire investigation

into people's mind.

[oberliner]

9. They just reprinted the statement from the Mueller spokesperson

Buzzfeed printed it themselves also:

[Eliot Rosewater]

12. Cant make it any bigger?

[Recursion]

10. What? No. It's just very process-oriented

Axios is certainly no friend of Trump. And anyways the source isn't nearly as important as the fact that the SCO just denied material parts of this story.

Leopold doesn't exactly have a lot of benefit of the doubt to start with.

[Celerity]

13. Axios is absolutely not RW

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/axios/

[cwydro]

27. There it is.

Everyone here high fiving all morning and saying this is IT!

It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad. Sigh.

[Recursion]

3. Mueller's office just refuted the Buzzfeed story

https://www.axios.com/muellers-investigation-goes-on-the-record-to-deny-buzzfeed-report-a07f65a6-611a-42de-adf6-91f337ddfdf1.html

This is fucking absurd

[Apollyonus]

5. Here is a CNN story

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/18/media/buzzfeed-reporter-jason-leopold/index.html

[jaysunb]

6. I defended him in the Plame affair

and will continue to do so.

[Recursion]

11. FFS why? (nt)

[Dr Hobbitstein]

74. He lied. Why would you defend him?

[allgood33]

82. What did he lie about in the Place incident?

[Dr Hobbitstein]

84. Rove will be indicted in 24 hours.

Then, 24 business hours. Lies. All of it.

[shanny]

7. Thanks everyone.

Can't walk away for a minute...

[demmiblue]

14. I'm going to wait before having a hissy fit. n/t

[Recursion]

15. For 24 business hours?

It's your call. I'm done with him

[demmiblue]

18. OK.

[DonViejo]

17. Thank you, demmiblue.

[mbusby]

16. Breathe....

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211692246

[Recursion]

19. No. Stop making excuses for this hack because he agrees with us

Per CNN: “"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," said special counsel spokesman Peter Carr in a statement.

They. Fabricated. Quotes.

Stop defending this

[UniteFightBack]

24. This reporter must be on a career deathwish to do this again. I would watch out with reading too

much into this statement from Mueller. I'll bet they got some things wrong and Mueller is using that to combat this statement because I'll bet Mueller did not want this out there........yet.....???????

[Liberty Belle]

78. Or a source they relied on fed them inaccurate information

either intentionally or inadvertently, ie someone's memory was imperfect.

Someone may have described documents they'd seen to a reporter, and got some details wrong.

Those are not the same as fabricating quotes.

We do not know, also, if the main premise of the story was wrong, or merely some lesser details.

[Recursion]

80. Which is why they should have sat on the story until they could get confirmation

Ronan Farrow was chasing the same story and sat on it because he specifically couldn't get confirmation that Mueller had documentation of Trump directing Cohen to lie

[oberliner]

20. Rick Wilson is a right-winger and close friend of Rudy Giuliani

[BannonsLiver]

23. He has a funny way of showing it.

[oberliner]

38. Lots of right-wingers don't like Trump

He is a national Republican political strategist whose book about Trump is entitled: "A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever"

He is a big Mitt Romney fan.

[BannonsLiver]

42. He's mocked Rudy relentlessly from Day 1 of this saga

Either you haven’t been paying attention, don’t understand it or are willfully spreading bullshit. Try harder next time.

[Kingofalldems]

87. Beautiful.

[tblue37]

81. Wiilson's book title is "Everything Trump Touches Dies." nt

[Blue_true]

40. Sure does. He has been throwing haymakers at Trump and his lawyers from Day 1.

Is he a rightie? Yes.

Does he want Trump and I guess Pence gone? Sure as heck look that way. Now Kasich, Wilson would likely be kissing his feet.

[oberliner]

41. He backed Evan McMullin for president

[Blue_true]

44. He is a rightwinger, but very, very hostile toward Trump.

Not that I blame him.

[oberliner]

47. Yes, agreed

[PubliusEnigma]

21. Check your shorts, Junior. You might need change.

[UniteFightBack]

22. Did they refute the whole story or maybe only aspects of it. I'll bet they would seize on anything

to put out a statement saying it's not 'accurate'....what exactly is not accurate..hmmmm perhaps we need to calm the subject, the work is not done and the Republicans are still complicit.

[Recursion]

25. Mueller says they got specific quotes wrong

How does anything fucking matter after that? Particularly given the baggage Leopold came in with?

[UniteFightBack]

26. This will get sussed out. I mean c'mon it's pretty plausible that rump told Cohen to lie...but

maybe the reporting got some other stuff wrong.

[Recursion]

28. And Jason Fucking Leopold absolutely cannot get a bombshell wrong

No margin of error. Zero. It was fucking malpractice to send him after this story

[onenote]

77. More importantly they say BuzzFeed's characterization of testimony and documents was not accurate

What was that "characterization"? --- That Trump had directed Cohen to lie to Congress.

That part of the Mueller office statement is even more damning that the "specific statements" part.

[Recursion]

79. And Ronan Farrow says his own source was very specific

That Trump did not memorialize any explicit direction to Cohen to lie

[spin]

29. Apparently the story that gave many so much hope is not true. ...

If the story really is false I have to admit I no longer have much faith in our news media. Does the media believe we are mushrooms or something? Why are they feeding us bullshit. What ever happened to fact checking and verification. I thought journalists considered it important to e credible.

It also doesn’t help that if the story was false, Trump can use it as example of fake news.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

30. They didn't say it wasn't true; they said certain specific statements were not accurate.

That's a very narrow statement and very different from saying the whole story is false. Buzzfeed has responded by saying it stands by its reporting.

[spin]

35. It is highly unusual that Mueller's team would inject itself into this situation. ...

That leads me to suspect the story is either totally or mostly false.

Time will tell.

I have heard so many “bombshell” breaking news stories about Trump and how each is the beginning of the end of his presidency that I am beginning to feel like Charlie Brown.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

36. It is also possible that the OSC wants to squelch any suspicions that it has sprung a leak, OR

that the leak didn't come from the OSC at all but from the SDNY, which handled the Cohen case.

[spin]

37. That might be. (n/t)

[Blue_true]

43. Or, the Special Counsel is trying to tamp things down.

Why would the SC want a major piece of the investigation being gutted by a leak or loose lips.

One can guess where the leak may have come from. My guess, dedicated senior members of the FBI who are in the know and are tired of Trump's attacks on their agency, with them knowing that he is a criminal.

[Hoyt]

56. They said it pretty bluntly if you ask me. If it were only marginally inaccurate, why say anything?

[cwydro]

68. My thought too.

[spin]

73. Why get people's hope up. ...

Every week the media releases at least one bombshell story that they say will mark the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Everybody gets all enthusiastic and then nothing ever happens.

[musicblind]

54. If anything, this gives me more faith in the media.

Throughout the day, CNN, NYT, WaPo, and WSJ all said, repeatedly, that they could not confirm the story. That the story was an IF.

Earlier in the day CNN's website put up analysis that either Trump or Buzzfeed would go down. WaPo mentioned, with an article earlier today, told about the reporter's checkered past.

They discussed the Buzzfeed story on CNN but constantly warned us that this was an IF that couldn't yet be corroborate.

The problem came in the willingness of people to believe it because it was what they wanted to hear and because Buzzfeed had a pretty good reputation until now.

To add more credibility to the media, CNN has been on, forgoing all commercial breaks, to give a solid hour of coverage to the story's retraction. Something truly biased news would never do.

I have less faith in BuzzFeed right now, for sure, but not less faith in the news media as a whole. Actually, I have more faith in news media as a whole right now. They are on the air this very moment doing the hard thing. Something the likes of FOX would never do.

[Hassler]

31. Not accurate isn't the same as false.

[Recursion]

32. Jason Leopold does not have that leeway

It was absolute journalistic malpractice to send him out on this story.

[Hassler]

34. Your standard is not mine

[oberliner]

33. New outlets should not publish stories that are not accurate

[Codeine]

70. Journalistically it pretty much is. nt

[bullwinkle428]

39. Fitzmas me twice, shame on...me??

[madinmaryland]

46. 24 business hours is apparently a long fucking time.

I’m still waiting for Rove to frog marched out of the WH.

[oberliner]

50. Oh, the memories

[greytdemocrat]

59. LOL!!!

[blogslut]

45. I'm cool with both Buzzfeed's story and the SC's statement

Much like the Steele dossier (which, Buzzfeed published), parts of this Buzzfeed story are true, parts are not accurate.

As for Mr. Leopold and Fitzmas, well:

[FakeNoose]

48. Yep, as of tonight BuzzFeed is standing by their story too

Thanks for the very cool clip from one of my all-time favorite movies!

[blogslut]

58. Remember what else happened in that history and the movie?

One of Woodstein's articles was not accurate and the White House raked them over the coals about it. The Post stood by the story.

[radical noodle]

63. Woodstein?

Do you mean Woodward?

[blogslut]

66. Woodstein was Ben Bradlee's portmanteau for Woodward and Bernstein

[radical noodle]

69. Ah, a mix of the two

Gotcha!

[oberliner]

49. News outlets should not run stories with parts that are not accurate

[blogslut]

52. It happens and has happened for a long time

[Recursion]

62. You can't possibly be saying the Chicago Daily Tribune was *right* to run that headline

before they had verification of the story? Isn't that the whole point of the photo?

[blogslut]

64. I'm not going to pursue this argument with you

[brettdale]

51. Jason Im guessing

Was the imbecile from buzzfeed, that has made Trump look good?

[FakeNoose]

60. Mueller is not denying the story

Mueller wants us to know that HE didn't leak the story, so the BuzzFeed reporter must have gotten it somewhere else. Maybe he got it from SDNY, who knows? Point is, it's still a good story. It looks to me like Mueller is trying to take some heat off of Michael Cohen because Cheeto is threatening his father-in-law.

Everybody chill out, and drink a big glass of wine.

[underpants]

53. It's Chinatown Jake

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016224394

[Tipperary]

55. From hero to bum in one short day!

Du in a nutshell!

[Hoyt]

57. I know I shouldn't laugh so hard -- because I've been the bum too -- but that's funny.

[cwydro]

65. Lol.

True dat.

[Midnightwalk]

61. Frustrating not Fatal

I won’t defend the reporter in anyway.

What really matters is what is provable in open court or congressional hearings. That was true when some of us jumped on the initial bandwagon and is still true now that questions are being raised on the report and some are jumping that way

I realize the public opinion fiasco this is, but in an odd way it makes Mueller seem more credible. Still its a large PR hit to us.

If it turns out that trump suborned perjury he should be removed. If that can’t be proved then there has to be something provable to do so.

The reason the PR battle matters is we need Republican senators to feel they will be voted out if they don’t convict. I don’t think this episode changed that either way with yesterday’s exuberance or today’s pessimism.

[oberliner]

67. It's fatal because of his past history of inaccurate reporting

[Midnightwalk]

71. To the reporter ?

Yeah I’ll agree with that. Screw that guy.

I said I won’t defend the reporter. Most of my reply was meant to express my opinion on how much it hurts in the bigger picture of removing Trump. By the time we would get through thorough house hearings or any trial, this turn of events will be barely remembered

I’ll add it also feeds the fake news narrative. A clear debunking ironically could make the media look more credible. That’s not what happened with them sticking to their story. I don’t think people who parrot “fake news” are very persuadable but stuff like this feeds it.

[cwydro]

72. I wasn't real familiar with this guy, so I just now read up on him.

Wow.

[Buckeyeblue]

75. This level of journalism is complicated

Because you rely on sources who claim first hand information. But you never see those details yourself. So you're reconstructing someone's account, probably from their memory or maybe from someone else's description.

My guess is the story probably captures the spirit of what the Mueller Team has discovered but certain details are not correct.

As a prosecutor, the details are more important than the spirit, because details convict.

[chimpymustgo]

89. Excellent explanation. But where does it go from here? nt

[Buckeyeblue]

91. I think we have to wait for the investigation to end.

From now on we should be skeptical about reporting that claims inside information into the investigation.

[Loki Liesmith]

76. Settle down

[librechik]

83. Huh. I wondered if there were any Leopold haters still around after all this time.

It was bad enough that he investigated 9/11 anomalies. Now you want to permanently label him wrong just because you hate anyone who doesn't think logically like you. You leap to use the tar brush and the censor pen. Amazing.

Thanks for revealing yourself!

[Dr Hobbitstein]

85. 24 business hours. I'm super serial!

[jaysunb]

86. +1 n/t

[Recursion]

88. OMG

He got the two biggest stories of his career wrong. He said things we all really wanted to be true, but which were ahead of what he could actually confirm. He let an anomous source lead him by the nose both times, and both times refused to name him after his story collapsed.

His source here said he or she had seen documents Mueller had confirming that Trump explicitly directed Cohen to lie. He couldn't confirm that, but he printed it. Mueller categorically denied having such documents.

Leopold is a good writer but a bad journalist

[bigtree]

90. I love that there are only three recs

...here's three cheers for journalism (and common sense).

That said: Jason, DU, this shit again...