The sources who lie and the reporters who protect them

Protecting anonymous sources - or covering-up government misconduct?

Imagine you’re a major media outlet like The Washington Post or CNN. You have a huge platform on the web, in print, or on TV. You publish consequential stories with information from anonymous sources on Trump/Russia collusion, an email Donald Trump, Jr. received about a Wikileaks release, and President Trump’s instructions to a Georgia election investigator to “find the fraud.” Your stories shape agendas and become national news. They fuel conspiracies, divide Americans, and influence elections.

And then you realize you’ve been played. Your anonymous sources gave you false information. You have to issue a correction. Why should that be the end of the story?

Fake News and “Find the Fraud”

On January 9, 2021 The Washington Post published a story that President Trump ordered a Georgia election investigator looking into 2020 election irregularities to “find the fraud” in a late December phone call.

This purported call was pushed by Washington Post reporters to further allegations of criminal obstruction of justice. A serious crime, if true.

Today, The Washington Post issued a significant and concerning correction.

This Washington Post correction was necessitated by the release of an audio recording, which showed that Trump’s comments on the call were misquoted “based on information provided by a source.”

This isn’t the end of the story, however. There’s still a story and it’s a good one. It has to do with the anonymous source who lied about Trump’s call - potentially for political gain.

In other words, the question still remains:

Who is the source that lied about Trump’s call with the Georgia election investigator?