If the national media didn’t lace their most consequential reports in innuendo and assumptions of the worst, they would be almost entirely unremarkable.
A spate of articles in recent days make claims related to President Trump, former FBI Director James Comey and Russia — and if it weren’t for their suggestive tone that something suspect is going on, they’d read like a Palm Springs weather report.
On Thursday, Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News reported that in April, fired National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, who is under federal investigation for failing to disclose past lobbying work for Russia and Turkey, told some of his associates he received a “message” from Trump to “stay strong.”
Isikoff characterized that innocuous bit of encouragement as a potential indictment, saying that it “could raise additional questions” related to previous reports about Trump and comments he is said to have made about Flynn to Comey.
That Flynn received a pep talk from a friend might be viewed as one of politics’ more precious moments, but MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough adjusted his coke-bottle glasses and saw a cover up.
“Any criminal defense lawyer would be horrified,” Scarborough said on his show Friday, “if their client made the phone call that Donald Trump made and then said, ‘Stay strong,’ because it certainly does sound at that point like he’s telling him you know, ‘Don’t give in. Don’t give an inch. Don’t reveal any information. I’m on your side.’ It’s not direct, but any criminal defense attorney would be horrified.”
Earlier in the week, the New York Times reported that Comey, when he was still head of the FBI, recorded a conversation with Trump about Flynn, in which the president told him, “I hope you can let this go.”
The comment was reportedly transcribed on a memo, which the Times article’s author had not seen and who was only told about “parts of it” by Comey’s “close associates.”
To say, “I hope you can let this go” is both ambiguous and not a command. But the Times headline described the episode as, “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation,” and the article referred to the memo as “the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I.”
To recap: “The clearest evidence” of wrongdoing is a memo that the Times has not seen and was only relayed “parts of,” plus the quote, “I hope you can let this go.”
Late on Friday the Times further reported on a transcript from Trump’s meeting this month with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, in which Trump was said to have remarked on the “great pressure” he was relieved from after firing Comey.
The Times admitted it didn’t have the transcript but that an “American official” read from it to the paper’s reporters.
No one knows the context of the full conversations, and the Times doesn’t get to see the memos and transcripts it’s reporting about.
I don’t know about you, but … impeach!
That’s a joke made in sarcasm, a concept that went clear over the heads in the Washington Post newsroom this week.
The paper’s Adam Entous reported Wednesday that last June, before Trump became the Republican nominee, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a private comment to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Rep. Steve Scalise, all Republicans, that Russian President Vladimir Putin “pays” Trump.
A recording of the comment was given to the Washington Post, which did not publish it. (I asked Entous and a Post spokeswoman why and received no response.)
The paper did, however, print a transcript which reads:
McCarthy: There’s … there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump… [laughter]… swear to God.
Ryan: This an off the record … [laughter] … NO LEAKS … [laughter] … alright?!
[Laughter]
Ryan: This is how we know we’re a real family here.
More laughter followed, and all parties involved said McCarthy’s comment was made in jest, which is apparent to anyone who knows what “[laughter]” is.
But talking about his report on MSNBC that night, Entous said he listened to the recording “very carefully” (an option not made available to everyone else to judge for themselves) and that McCarthy’s remark was made amid a “very serious” conversation.
Remove the innuendo and commentary from the reports, and readers are left with a story that goes: Trump had conversations this week.
That’s a headline that doesn’t really justify the Washington Post’s new “Democracy dies in darkness” slogan, but at least it’s accurate.
Eddie Scarry is a media reporter for the Washington Examiner.
