Donald Trump Vs BuzzFeed: Yes, BuzzFeed Was Right To Publish The Trump-Russia Dossier, And Here’s Why [Opinion]
President-elect Donald Trump has been at war with media outlets for some time. However, one of the most notable wars as of late is Donald Trump vs. Buzzfeed.
.@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since election and their credibility will soon be gone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
I win an election easily, a great "movement" is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
We had a great News Conference at Trump Tower today. A couple of FAKE NEWS organizations were there but the people truly get what's going on
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
According to Telegraph, Donald Trump has warned Buzzfeed will “suffer the consequences” for publishing the Trump-Russia dossier – which describes damaging and unverified accusations against Donald Trump.
Sean Spicer, the president-elect’s press secretary, held a press conference on Wednesday morning to make a statement regarding the Trump-Russia dossier Buzzfeed published.
“It’s frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a left-wing blog that was openly hostile to the president-elect’s campaign to drop highly salacious and flat out false information on the internet just days before he takes the oath of office.”
It makes sense that Donald Trump and everyone who stands behind him would be upset that Buzzfeed published this Trump-Russia dossier. While the information within is unverified, it is highly damaging to Donald Trump. But, does that mean Buzzfeed shouldn’t have published it? Of course not.
Per Business Insider, both Buzzfeed and CNN spent most of Wednesday being “crucified” by Donald Trump on both social media and live television in regards to their coverage of the Trump-Russia dossier.
Trump referred to Buzzfeed as a “failing pile of garbage” during a press conference. The only difference between CNN and Buzzfeed is the fact that Buzzfeed published the actual dossier.
From the moment Buzzfeed published the Trump-Russia dossier, and other media outlets started reporting on it, people have been debating whether or not Buzzfeed had the right to publish the dossier in the first place. Was it alright that the outlet published it?
The biggest reason why people are struggling with whether or not it is alright that the outlet published it is that the document is full of allegations that are unverified.
So, was Buzzfeed wrong to publish it? Of course not. Freedom of speech gives Buzzfeed the right to publish it. Furthermore, the website was very clear about the fact that the allegations were unverified and stated that people would have to make their own decisions regarding the dossier.
Business Insider goes as far as to say when asking yourself whether or not Buzzfeed should have published the Trump-Russia dossier, you have to ask yourself what would have happened if the dossier hadn’t been published? More importantly, what happened because the dossier got published?
Democratic Senator Harry Reid not only knew about the document Buzzfeed published, but he thought it was serious enough for the FBI to investigate it. In fact, he met with FBI Director James Comey to investigate the dossier personally. The FBI proceeded to issue a FISA warrant and both the FBI and CIA briefed Obama and Trump on it.
All decent journalists in and around Washington D.C. had seen this Trump-Russia dossier, but the general public didn’t know it even existed. In an alternative reality where only these “insiders” had access to the dossier, it would have been all too easy for someone to have used it to blackmail Donald Trump in the future. Would that have really been a better alternative?
Thanks to Buzzfeed the Trump-Russia dossier is now out there, and everyone has the option of making their own decision regarding the information it contains. Whether or not the information can be verified or is damaging to Trump is a different story and a different argument.
Buzzfeed did what Buzzfeed set out to do, which was to make the dossier known to the public. What the public decided to do after the information became known isn’t Buzzfeed’s responsibility.
Share your thoughts on Buzzfeed’s decision to publish the Trump-Russia dossier in the comments section found down below.
[Featured Image by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]
