The news media is "Aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"

What happened to the truth?

James O'Keefe releases hours of internal CNN audio from 2009

Conservative sting activist James O'Keefe on Thursday released 100 hours of audio of CNN employees that surreptitiously recorded in 2009 and provided to his organization from an anonymous source.

O'Keefe said he has not edited the audio and is calling on the public to sift through it to find controversial pieces within it. It's posted at his Project Veritas website.

In one of the clips O'Keefe featured in a tease for all the audio, Richard Griffiths, who is now CNN's vice president and senior editorial director, is heard describing his philosophy on journalism.

"Aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. To a degree, right?" Griffiths says, citing a common journalism trope. "Is that not part of the traditional role of a journalist? It's actually one of the things I can be most proud of as a journalist."

In another clip, Joe Sterling, who at the time worked as an online editor for CNN, is heard saying "there is no debate" over the science on climate change and he likens it to "born-agains" who say there remains a debate over creationism.

O'Keefe, who is often criticized for deceptive editing and unethical media tactics, called Sterling's comments evidence of "blatant bias against Republicans."

O'Keefe's tapes publish amid President Trump's frequent attacks on CNN as "fake news."

On his website, O'Keefe says more audio will be "released in a WikiLeaks style dump."

 

Nah! This is fake news!!!

Feb. 2: Trump Meets Putin

The Claim: Trump's team switched off recording devices during the president's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Source: Raw Story and Ilan Berman, vice president of the Foreign Policy Council.

The Facts: Berman actually just speculated during a panel discussion on the reason there was no readout of Trump's call with Putin. He offered, by way of speculation, that perhaps White House staffers had switched off the recording devices. Raw Story saw his suggestion after it was tweeted out, and they published a report titled, "Foreign policy insider: 'No readout of Trump-Putin call because White House turned off recording."

But contrary to Berman's suggestion, there is indeed a readout of Trump's call with Putin, although it's vague and short on details. Second, White House calls are generally not recorded, and they haven't been since the time of Richard Nixon, according Yahoo's Oliver Knox. Third, as Berman stated repeatedly after the Raw Story report was published, he was only speculating about the readout. By his own admission, he has no idea what actually happened.

Raw Story has updated its story to note that no one knows what they're talking about. On that they are correct, in part.

Feb. 2: Payback For Putin

The Claim: The Trump administration had eased restrictions on Russia so that U.S. companies can go into business with the Federal Security Service, which is the successor of the dreaded KGB.

The Source: NBC News' Peter Alexander.

The Facts: Alexander ultimately debunked his own claim, tweeting a note of clarification that read, "Source familiar w sanctions says it's a technical fix, planned under Obama, to avoid unintended consequences of cybersanctions."

The New York Times' Peter Baker noted elsewhere that the proposed fix was indeed in the works long before Trump took office.

"Treasury action on Russian sanctions was a technical fix initiated by career officials when Obama was still in office, not a Trump move," he said.

Feb. 2: Gorsuch In College

The Claim: "As a student, SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch Supported Gays and Opposed Campus Military recruiters."

The Source: NBC News.

The Facts: NBC News misunderstood its source material. The college newspaper referenced in the NBC story contained an editing error that confused reporters, and caused them to credit Gorsuch for an article he didn't write. The error wasn't that hard to spot. The NBC story has been updated so that it's now a different report entirely.

Feb. 2: Black History Month

The Claim: Trump changed the name of "Black History Month" to "National African American History Month."

The Source: TMZ.

The Facts: This did happen, but not under Trump. Past presidents, including Barack Obama, have referred to it as "National African American History Month."

Feb. 2: Ryan Dodged a Question?

The Claim: Speaker Paul Ryan declined to answer a question at a press conference about Trump's allegedly contentious phone call with the Australian prime minister.

The Source: CNBC's John Harwood.

The Facts: Speaker Ryan declined to answer a question about former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ongoing feud with the president.

Feb. 1: Mexican Invasion

The Claim: Trump threatened to invade Mexico during a phone call with Mexican president Enrique Pena.

The Source: The Associated Press.

The Facts: The AP reported that Trump allegedly told Pena the U.S. military would do something about Mexico's "bad hombre" problem if Mexican authorities couldn't. CNN then published a report disputing AP's characterization of the call.

The Mexican government stated later that no such thing was said during the phone call between Trump and Pena. The White House claimed the same.

The AP reported later that a White House official said Trump was only kidding.

The Washington Post published a story on Trump's calls that relied heavily on the AP's initial characterization of his conversations with world leaders. The Post later stripped its article of all references to the AP's claim that Trump threatened to invade Mexico.

It's entirely possible that neither government is shooting straight, and that Trump sort of threatened military action. But newsrooms don't seem to have any idea what actually happened, and the inconclusive and contradictory reporting has only made things more confusing. That's a failure of journalism that typically results when you claim to know more than you know.