The summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report – no collusion, no obstruction – was a "death blow" to the media's credibility, the "journalistic equivalent of walking outside without pants," according to Rolling Stone editor Matt Taibbi.
"In light of yesterday's news, I'm releasing this last chapter of Hate Inc. early. WMD damaged the media's reputation. Russiagate may have destroyed it," Taibbi tweeted Saturday, teasing his blog post that rebuked "Russiagate" as "this generation's WMD [weapons of mass destruction]."
His missive argued the Iraq war call over weapons of mass destruction after 9/11 damaged the reputation of the media establishment, but the Russia colluding with President Donald Trump's campaign relentless narrative has ostensibly "destroyed it."
"[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," Taibbi quoted as "the money line" from Attorney General William Barr's letter summarizing Mueller's exhaustive report on the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and allegations of potential Trump campaign coordination with a foreign power.
"The story hyped from the start was espionage: a secret relationship between the Trump campaign and Russian spooks who'd helped him win the election," Taibbi wrote.
"The betrayal narrative was not reported as metaphor. It was not 'Trump likes the Russians so much, he might as well be a spy for them.' It was literal spying, treason, and election-fixing – crimes so severe, former NSA employee John Schindler told reporters, Trump 'will die in jail.'"
After the long promised connections to a criminal conspiracy in the media being debunked this weekend, it will now take a leap of faith for Americans to believe anything accusatory of President Trump in the media, Taibbi concluded.
"Stories have been coming out for some time now hinting Mueller's final report might leave audiences 'disappointed,' as if a president not being a foreign spy could somehow be bad news," Taibbi wrote. "Openly using such language has, all along, been an indictment.
"Imagine how tone-deaf you'd have to be to not realize it makes you look bad, when news does not match audience expectations you raised. To be unaware of this is mind-boggling, the journalistic equivalent of walking outside without pants.
". . . Of course, there won't be such a reckoning. (There never is). But there should be. We broke every written and unwritten rule in pursuit of this story, starting with the prohibition on reporting things we can't confirm."
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