CNN report falsely linking Wikileaks to Donald Trump Jr. called out by Washington Post.

Donald Trump Jr. Washington Post/AP.

A CNN report claiming that Donald Trump Jr. was emailed in advance information from Wikileaks has been called out as false. Washington Post. The email was sent to Trump Jr. as well as President Trump and had a link to a huge file dump by Wikileaks. The CNN report falsely said that the e-mail was sent September 4th, long before the info was publicly available. The Washington Post report corrects that claim and shows that the e-mail was sent after the information was available to the public. The sources of the e-mail, two members of the House Intelligence Committee leaked the e-mail to CNN, knowing that the e-mail was after Wikileaks had released the leaks and knowing that Trump Jr. had never responded to it. 

My Comment:

Credit where credit is due. Washington Post did some actual journalism here. They were able to figure out the general source of this report (though not the specific persons involved) and the date of the e-mail. Doing so proved that CNN hadn't done their jobs in verifying their reports. I am no fan of the Washington Post but when they do actual journalism I don't have a problem with linking to them. 

CNN just showed its bias here and it's fairly obvious that they are completely anti-Trump. They didn't even bother to confirm the date of the e-mail and falsely implied that Trump Jr. and Wikileaks did something wrong. That's the exact opposite of what a journalist is supposed to do. Sure, they can trust their sources but they are also supposed to do some fact checking. And CNN did not do so. 

It's important to note that CNN wasn't the only news outlet that got this wrong. CBS also got it wrong and Julian Assange called them out on it. He also bet them $100,000 that the story was false. CBS didn't take the bet and shortly after the story fell apart. CNN is getting most of the blame but we have to point out that they are not alone here. 

This is fake news, CBS, you pathetic excuse for a media organization. I challenge your controlling oligarchs, the Redstone family, to a $100k bet that "providing access through WikiLeaks" to our unpublished information is false. https://t.co/V9A0h4eakw

— Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) December 8, 2017

This report just goes to show how damaging shoddy reporting is. CNN and CBS blanked the internet with the fake accusations. Many people did not see the follow up that disproved the reports so now a large amount of people think that Trump Jr. and Wikileaks coordinated with each other during the election. This damages the reputation of both Wikileaks and the Trump administration. And neither news outlet is doing enough to punish the people that got this wrong.

One thing they could do is punish or fire their reporters and expose their sources who lied. There needs to be consequences for people who lie about things so obviously. After Brian Ross lied about the Michael Flynn situation, he got suspended for four weeks by ABC and was banned from reporting about Trump. So far there is no indication that CNN and CBS will punish anyone for this. Doing so wouldn't salvage their reputation but it would at least prove that they cared about basic journalistic standards...