For anyone confused by the intense drama and shade being thrown back and forth on Twitter between the president of the United States and CNN, you’re not alone. The feud only makes sense in its complete context and with a small amount of knowledge in the field of journalism (which Trump and his son clearly do not have) for it all to make sense.
The story begins with a story, one with several authors, including the former reporter from The Washington Post Carl Bernstein. Bernstein became a household name and trusted voice when he broke the story that took down Republican President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. Along with Jim Sciutto and Marshall Cohen, Bernstein reported that former Trump attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen witnessed Trump, Jr. telling his father about the infamous Trump Tower 2016 meeting with Russian government operatives in advance.
‘If true, such a statement would directly implicate Trump in a conspiracy with Russian agents to sway the 2016 election. Trump and his son have repeatedly denied that the candidate had any foreknowledge of the meeting.’
Cohen pleaded guilty in August to eight felonies, two of which he testified were “at the direction of and in cooperation with” the president.
When the story was reported, Bernstein and his coauthors made the following points clear: Lanny Davis, one of Cohen’s attorneys, declined to comment on the story; their sources, who they referred to as “people who have discussed the matter with Cohen,” were not singular, but plural; and that Cohen stood to directly benefit from these claims considering that he was cooperating with the special counsel’s office in exchange for a lesser sentence for his own crimes.
Most importantly, the article noted that:
‘These sources said Cohen does not have evidence, such as audio recordings, to corroborate his claim, but he is willing to attest to his account.’
Two weeks after the story broke, Lanny Davis now says that he did confirm the story to CNN, but retracts his statements. Trump and his son, Trump, Jr. have been on endless rants attacking both the news outlet and Bernstein as a result. CNN stands by their story.
Despite how Trump and his son are bending over backwards into pretzel shapes in order to discredit the story, the news outlet, and Carl Bernstein, the issue is more confusing than it is any kind of revelation.
For instance, if one didn’t know that a lawyer can confirm a story and still decline to make an on-the-record comment, it would be easy to assume that the story had been debunked. Or if a Trump supporter already didn’t trust a network after his heroes have spent more than two years screaming “fake news” at them, it would be hard to see that the network standing behind a story means that it’s probably the two Trumps who are getting this wrong, not CNN.
The drama continues to unfold, but it’s certain that the Trumps will milk it for every last drop before moving onto complaining about the next piece of reporting they don’t like.
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
