Everyone in media who promoted Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, ought to be ashamed. You backed a charlatan.
Wolff made a spectacle of himself Monday when he ducked out of an interview on Australia’s “Today” show, claiming unconvincingly that he couldn’t hear the presenter’s questions in his earpiece. His comical exit came after “Today” anchor Ben Fordham brought up Wolff’s sudden reversal on a rumor alleging President Trump is having an affair with someone, whom he had strongly hinted was United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.
“You’re not hearing me, Mr. Wolff?” Fordham asked after Wolff claimed he suddenly couldn’t hear the host’s questions.
“No,” Wolff responded. “I’m not getting anything.”
What a clown show.
Watch the video. Observe how the supposed technical difficulties came only after Wolff had already answered questions with no apparent problems. Observe how Wolff waits patiently for Fordham to stop speaking before responding with, “I can’t hear anything.” Wolff even responds with a “no” when Fordham asks if he can hear him!
LISTEN – This is what Michael Wolff was HEARING in his earpiece when he claimed he couldn’t hear my question on @TheTodayShow this morning. pic.twitter.com/dl3ZvQfKWm— BenFordham (@BenFordham) February 26, 2018
I can’t be the only one who wishes he answered the question. I’m dying to know how he went from saying he is “absolutely sure” about an affair, to playing around with the idea that the woman involved in Haley, to saying “I do not know who Donald Trump is having an affair with, okay?” His newfound disinterest in the topic is curious considering he has been neither shy about wading into the affair waters, nor has he been subtle about who he thinks is involved.
But now he is suddenly at a loss for words thanks to, er, technical difficulties. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
There are a few lessons to be learned here, but the biggest one for everyone in the press is: Don’t elevate an untrustworthy journalist because he says he has the goods on the White House. It was obvious from the start that Wolff’s book had major problems, from typos to factual inaccuracies and everything in between.
Nevertheless, people like MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski said about portions of the book that “the spirit of it was completely true.” MSNBC’s Katy Tur said elsewhere, “A lot of the stuff did read as — did feel true. … There’s a lot of it that reads true, that feels true.” CNN host Brian Stelter said, “There’s disappointment about the errors that are in the text, but the book itself does hold up.”
We knew long before the publication of Fire and Fury that Wolff was an unreliable narrator. The people who supported his book as if it were the Gospel truth knew what they were getting into. Perhaps our “facts only” press will think better the next time a well-known fabulist emerges from the White House with some supposedly juicy anti-Trump gossip.
