In journalism, it’s generally understood that you report only facts, not speculation.
Someone should remind ABC News of this principle. Based on these excerpts from George Stephanopoulos’ recent interview with former FBI Director James Comey, the network and its staff could use a refresher on the basics of responsible journalism.
Comey is on a media tour now to promote his new book, “A Higher Loyalty,” in which the former FBI director recalls the time he met with President Trump to discuss the infamous Steele dossier, a dubious work of opposition research alleging the Russians have compromising personal and financial information on the commander in chief. One section in the dossier alleges Trump paid Russian prostitutes to urinate on him. It’s salacious, it’s obscene, it’s shameful – it’s also 100 percent unverified. In fact, much of the Steele dossier has yet to be authenticated.
Shamefully enough, Comey is using his media tour to give a wink-and-nod to the worst of the unconfirmed rumors, and ABC is going along with it.
“I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current President of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013. It’s possible, but I don’t know,” Comey tells Stephanopoulos.
To be clear: The former director is using this ABC interview to say Trump may or may not have done these outrageously embarrassing things, and the network is allowing it to happen, even though no one has actually authenticated the claim.
[Also read: Tucker Carlson makes me sad]
Comey continued, alleging Trump asked him to disprove the dossier, specifically the part about Russian prostitutes.
“And then he says something that distracted me because he said, you know, ‘If there’s even a one percent chance my wife thinks that’s true, that’s terrible,'” Comey said. “And I remember thinking, ‘How could your wife think there’s a one percent chance you were with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow?’ I’m a flawed human being, but there is literally zero chance that my wife would think that was true.”
He added with a not-so-subtle nudge, “So, what kind of marriage to what kind of man does your wife think (that) there’s only a 99 percent chance you didn’t do that?”
Ex-FBI Director James Comey: “I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current President of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013. It’s possible, but I don’t know” https://t.co/x2m2Uar0yR pic.twitter.com/RzbnP17dSG
— CNN (@CNN) April 13, 2018
Comey also said the dossier meeting felt like an “out of body experience,” and that it was “really weird.”
You know what’s really weird? An ostensibly serious news organization giving a disgruntled ex-employee a platform to exact revenge by talking in public about this sort of salacious and unverified rumor. If Comey wants to grind his axe, that’s his business. ABC News, on the other hand, has a responsibility to sort fact from fiction, and from smut.
