OPINION:
James Comey, FBI director, said a mouthful about the media during congressional testimony about Russia earlier this week, making clear it wasn’t his agency’s job to correct the press on printed or published errors — but also saying bluntly: Boy, they make a lot.
His words, not mine, as the Daily Caller noted: “Sometimes the newspaper gets it right, but there’s a whole lot of wrong information allegedly about classified activities in the newspaper. … We don’t call them to correct it.”
It’s much more fun to climb atop the podium of self-righteousness and point fingers … oh wait. That’s not what he said.
“We don’t call them to correct it,” Comey said, because we don’t want to “compound” what the “bad people” have done.
Hmm. OK.
So that explains this, then: “The Great Hacking of Vermont’s Electrical Grid That Never Happened.”
That’s the headline from January from the National Review’s “Corner” writer, Jim Geraghty, who went on to showcase the absurdity of the Democratic-fueled outrage over Russia’s supposed breach of Vermont’s power grid — outrage that was generated when The Washington Post first reported what turned out to be an inaccurate story.
“Vermont’s Democratic lawmakers offered intensely angry, some might even say alarmist responses,” Geraghty wrote. “Governor Peter Shumlin warned ’one of the world’s leading thugs, Vladimir Putin, has been attempting to hack our electric grid.’ Sen. Patrick J. Leahy painted a picture of a powerless state, succumbing to a brutal winter: ’This is beyond hackers having electronic joy rides — this is now about trying to access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down in the middle of winter. That is a direct threat to Vermont and we do not take it lightly.’ Rep. Peter Welch called the Russian hacking ’systemic, relentless, predatory.’”
One can only imagine the intel community’s response on this one — on this report they couldn’t call to correct out of fears about compounding what the bad people did.
Burlington Electric Department made the call, though. And their response was both rapid and scathing. “Media reports stating that Burlington Electric was hacked or that the electric grid was breached are false,” the department stated, shortly after the hacking news went viral.
And all the Comeys of the intel world went: and they laughed, and they laughed, and they laughed.
But really, Comey did have a good point, amid all the sketchy explanations about why the FBI doesn’t correct false narratives (which we all know is so they can use the information to FBI advantage. I mean, come on — can we get an amen on that at least, Comey? Enough with the compounding, already.). And he made his points while discussing Russia’s interference in Election 2016, something Democrats have been trying to paint as the reason Trump won and Hillary Clinton lost — so make of that context what you will. ’Cause Comey was pretty clear: He ain’t saying much on that, either, except to confirm an investigation was ongoing.
But back to Comey and his good point: The media does make mistakes. Sometimes, pretty big ones.
Top contenders?
Dan Rather’s attempt to showcase George W. Bush as going AWOL during his Vietnam-era Texas Air National Guard duty was a sizable error that saw the famed television news face exiting, stage right, his anchor desk.
Candy Crowley’s attempt to showcase then-presidential challenger Mitt Romney as wrong on facts during the televised debates of campaign 2012, when the good guvna kept insisting — quite correctly — that Barack Obama failed to call Benghazi a terrorist attack in the immediate aftermath of the, well, terrorist attack.
There’s a CNN oops for ya, one that some say was the thud-dropping moment Romney lost the election.
And speaking of Benghazi — how many media outlets reported as fact, again incorrectly, that the whole terror hit that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, was sparked by a YouTube video from a California man who dared to criticize the prophet? One could call that more a case of media bias, not mistake, except for the fact that the story lingered so long, even when all evidence pointed to the contrary.
Now there’s a story America’s intel could’ve clarified in a heartbeat, if so inclined.
How about all those tea party protesters who supposedly spit on black Congressman John Lewis and screamed the N-word as he walked the Capitol steps in 2010? The Washington Post, along with various other media outlets, were right on top of that report — yet no proof was ever forthcoming, even after Andrew Breitbart offered a cool $10,000 cash pay-out to anyone who could show the event on video.
Mistake?
I’ll say. Same with the media messaging of violence and tea party rallies — and peace and goodwill at Occupy Wall Street.
But as Comey himself said, it’s oftentimes hard to know who’s telling the truth.
“There’s a whole lot out there that is false,” he said, during congressional testimony. “And I suppose some of it could be people lying to reporters — I think that probably happens. But more often than not, it’s people [speaking to reporters] who act like they know, when they really don’t know.”
Granted. But being one of the people in the know, and refusing to tell and correct the record, isn’t really commendable. It actually makes you part of the problem.
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