Mediaite: In defense of Buzz Feed's Trump dossier story

[pnwmom]

http://www.mediaite.com/online/in-defense-of-buzzfeeds-publishing-of-the-trump-dossier/

Since then, we have learned a lot more context about this entire story and, after now being able to more confidently put some more pieces of this puzzle together, I have come to two pretty solid conclusions, both of which go against the conventional wisdom among the chattering class.

The first is that Buzzfeed was not only ethically justified in publishing the 35-page document, but they were virtually morally obligated to do so. The second is that CNN, while their reporting was dead on, did themselves and this story a great political disservice when they effectively got scared and pushed Buzzfeed under the bus, thus creating the impression that some journalistic crime had been committed here (a perception which Trump obviously took full advantage).

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Once CNN reported that a document Buzzfeed and many other outlets had was used, directly or indirectly, in a presidential intelligence briefing, in my view that dossier becomes inherently newsworthy, regardless of its veracity. At that point it basically becomes a question of whether the news value of it is outweighed by the potential damage done by promoting possibly false information. To me, there are several reasons why, especially in this unique set of circumstances, it absolutely does.

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[Lucinda]

1. Buzzfeed basically said "this is the document that everyone is talking about and we think

you have a right to know what is in it. We cant verify some of the details and maybe no one will be able to, but the document is real and here it is."

I have no problem with the way they presented it.

[Phoenix61]

2. Exactly

They openly acknowledged it was not verified. And I agree that if it's important enough to hit the President's desk, it's news.