Look, I don’t know this person, but this is quite a Twitter thread regarding The Atlantic’s fake news hit piece against President Trump. The story goes that Trump denigrated America’s war dead three years ago in France. You see, some people with firsthand knowledge said this was true, which was backed up by other anonymous sources, so this story is totally legitimate, right? No one on the record. Just unnamed clowns confirming what other anonymous sources said in a story that’s grounded in…anonymous sources. Am I on crack cocaine? This actually was accepted for publication? Well, over 20 Trump officials have denied it, even those who aren’t so fond of the president. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton flatly denied this story, saying if it were true, he would have dedicated a whole chapter of his book to it.
But, remember folks, journalists don’t make things up. Olivia Krauth of the Courier Journal decided to take one for the team, tweeting, “Contrary to popular belief, journalists don’t just make stuff up.”
Contrary to popular belief, journalists don’t just make stuff up. https://t.co/PmHHz2uPDs
— Olivia Krauth (@oliviakrauth) September 6, 2020
Anonymous sources are real people.
— Olivia Krauth (@oliviakrauth) September 6, 2020
The bar to be granted anonymity, at least in local news, is high.
Only when publishing their name could put them physical harm or they’re facing another serious form of retribution for speaking publicly.
So, please, by all means, tell me why a journalist would risk ruining their career and tarnishing their industry by making up a source.
— Olivia Krauth (@oliviakrauth) September 6, 2020
Have you ever heard of Stephen Glass?
— I did not and will not vote for him. Calm down. (@jtLOL) September 6, 2020
They made a whole movie about why you're wrong. https://t.co/XNUbZkvXKC
— I did not and will not vote for him. Calm down. (@jtLOL) September 6, 2020
Richard Jewell would like a wordhttps://t.co/WPHR7wqc3D
— Uncle Crumpty (@UncleCrumpty) September 6, 2020
Who wants to tell her?
“So, please, by all means, tell me why a journalist would risk ruining their career and tarnishing their industry by making up a source,” she added.
Well, I bet you can imagine the responses. Many are inappropriate and totally out of line, but what is this? Is the liberal media bubble that dense, or does Ms. Krauth simply not know about past events where the liberal media did invent stuff out of thin air? Maybe it’s a little of both, but Dan Rather peddling fake documents to smear George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service during the 2004 election is certainly a prime example. Why was Brian Williams yanked off of NBC’s Nightly News? Have we forgotten about Richard Jewell and the 1996 Summer Olympics? Oh, yes, and The New Republic dealing with Stephen Glass, one of the most successful fakers out there—some people cited these examples in the replies. The New York Times had to deal with the lies of former reporter Jayson Blair.
Journalists do and have made things up. That’s a fact. Why do they do it? Career advancement, maybe with a dash of sociopathy mixed in there. Bias is certainly a factor. And for The Atlantic, well, they just had a writer of theirs openly admit she will make up stuff to smear conservatives. We have another story in which an Atlantic reporter commented on how ghoulish the GOP was being by mocking Biden for refusing to answer questions while visiting the gravesite of his son. He wasn’t. Another fake news story to add to the list.
As the pool report from Sunday makes very clear, Biden never stopped to visit any graves. He walked out of church at 11:22 a.m., his motorcade left at 11:24 a.m., and Biden was home at 11:28 a.m. Why does @TheAtlantic keep fabricating stories? https://t.co/igmVomJbMi
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 8, 2020
And do we need to refresh how The Atlantic got totally owned for peddling a fake story about a police shooting? Yeah, that happened too.