Before Super Tuesday, NBC’s "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker used a word that earned her the ire of the liberal audience. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who was still running at this time, was a guest on the Sunday program. Former Rolling Stone editor Matt Taibbi wrote a quick post about why the knee-jerk reaction from the Left was nauseatingly stupid. Here’s what Welker said [emphasis mine]:
Haley is now dialing back expectations… Haley also weighing in on the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments over Mr. [Donald] Trump’s claim that he’s immune from criminal prosecution for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election.
If there are two things that liberals are sure of, it’s that Trump tried to pull off a coup on January 6, and the Russians tilted the 2016 election. Both are demonstrably false, with new evidence showing that the Kremlin wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 race, not Trump. Still, casting doubt regarding whether Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election results on January 6 is anathema to these folks. Taibbi added that this is one of the things you say when someone is accused of committing a crime—you say reportedly or allegedly, especially when no one has been convicted:
Colleagues went bananas, pitchforking poor Welker for including the pro forma newsism “allegedly.” The inimitable Aaron Rupar protested that Trump didn’t “allegedly” try to overturn the 2020 election, “He really tried to do that. We lived through it!” Dash Dubrovsky of the Gen Z Perspective Newsletter complained, “Why is Kristen Welker whitewashing Trump’s crimes?” White House Deputy communications director Herbie Ziskend (imagine Louis C.K.’s “whiny house guest” voice here) simply wrote, “‘Allegedly.’ Please do better, folks”…
Welker was clear, saying “criminal prosecution for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election,” a sentence obviously referring to Trump’s indictment by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. Every journalist is taught is to be careful with accusations of crime, because it is (or was) an automatic lawsuit if you called a not-convicted person guilty of a serious offense. One of my first editors, an elderly gent who’d put in about 400 years reviewing wire copy at UPI, told me early that “you write allegedly even if there’s video and the guy tattoed ‘I did it’ on his forehead.” They drilled this into us in the young-and-stupid phase as a way to save money on defamation counsel later.
Recommended
The former Rolling Stone editor had to be chuckling writing this short post, noting that you say these things to respect the presumption of innocence we have in this country while keeping your employer safe from the legal ramifications of baseless accusations.
“It’s also a protective mechanism, reminding journalists that no matter how certain things look from one angle, they might turn out different. We could have used more 'allegedlys' before we went into Iraq,” wrote Taibbi. “But Welker is being ripped as ‘undercover MAGA’ for doing journalism 101. Is it any surprise the business is falling apart?”
On that front, the ‘allegedlys’ can be put away regarding Welker being undercover MAGA. She’s not. Man, liberals are triggered over the minutiae.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member