Watergate Reporter Weighs In On Trump-Russia Coverage: ‘I Am Thankful I Don’t Have To Cover This Story’
In an interview with the New York Times, Bob Woodward, the veteran journalist famous for uncovering the Watergate scandal, weighed in on American media’s coverage of the alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
What prompted the NYT to reach out to Woodward is the most recent fiasco in the Trump-Russia story: Robert Mueller’s denial of a damning BuzzFeed News report which alleges that Donald Trump personally ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump tower in Russia.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, BuzzFeed‘s story went viral almost instantly, prompting a social media frenzy, widespread cable news coverage, and vocal calls for the impeachment of Donald Trump. But less than 24 hours later, in what is an unprecedented move for Mueller’s usually secretive office, the special counsel reached out to the outlet disputing the central claims made in the report.
Both the Washington Post and the New York Times later consulted their own sources, concluding that Mueller is indeed denying the entirety of the report.
But BuzzFeed‘s fiasco is only the latest of many in the Trump era. Pulitzer-prize winning progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald listed “The 10 Worst, Most Embarrassing U.S. Media Failures on the Trump/Russia Story” in an article published today in the Intercept.
From Fortune‘s claim that Russia Today hacked and took over C-SPAN, over Washington Post‘s allegation that the Russians invaded Vermont’s electricity grid, to the Guardian‘s unsubstantiated claim that Paul Manafort visited Julian Assange in Ecuador’s London embassy, the media has repeatedly failed to cover the Trump-Russia story accurately.
Beyond BuzzFeed: the 10 worst, most embarrassing U.S. Media failures on the Trump/Russia Story https://t.co/zeVc6HlmXM
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 20, 2019
According to veteran journalist Bob Woodward, it is the nature of the internet, its impatience, that is driving media outlets to publish unsubstantiated reports, and to publish them as quickly as possible.
“The hydraulic pressure in the system is just so great. The impatience of the internet — ‘give it to us immediately’ — drives so much, it’s hard to sort something like this out.”
“I say to you on the record, I am thankful I don’t have to cover this story on a daily basis,” Woodward told the New York Times.
Famous for uncovering the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, Woodward authored Fear: Trump in the White House, a book about the hectic Trump administration. But unlike the vast majority of his peers, the journalist does not believe in the Trump-Russia theory.
As RealClearPolitics reported, in a September interview with Hugh Hewitt, answering the host’s question about whether or not he had found anything in his research to point to the conclusion that Trump colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election in his favor, Woodward had a surprising answer.
“I did not, and of course, I looked for it, looked for it hard,” he said.
