The media recently has been rushing to admit that the Hunter Biden laptop story is legitimate before any indictment comes down in Delaware. With that amazing flip (after almost two years), some are admitting like Washington Post there is a “reckoning” for the media in the burying of the story before Biden’s election. That moment of reflection, however, has not stopped media from continuing to bury other stories. That was evident this Sunday on NBC when some of us noted that Chuck Todd interviewed Hillary Clinton but decided not to ask her about the Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently fining her campaign for concealing the funding of the Steele Dossier. Todd did not consider that relevant when asking Clinton about how the Democrats should approach the next election. Instead, Clinton was able to explain how Democrats “have a great story to tell” without telling the story of the last election (including the recent FEC fine).
We have previously discussed allegations that Marc Elias, the former general counsel for the Clinton Campaign and partner at the firm Perkins Coie, lied to conceal the campaign’s funding of the infamous Steele Dossier. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for violating election rules in hiding that funding as legal costs.
The problem for Todd is that he and NBC relentlessly pushed the dossier and the Russian collusion claims that were later debunked. It is still clearly too early for a “reckoning” on the media’s role in pushing the dossier. It does not even matter that Clinton and her campaign have been accused of misleading or lying to the few journalists who had the integrity to ask about their role in the scandal.
It was Elias who made the key funding available to Fusion GPS, which in turn enlisted Steele to produce his now discredited dossier on Trump and his campaign.
During the campaign, a few reporters did ask about the possible connection to the campaign, but Clinton campaign officials denied any involvement. It was only weeks after the election that journalists discovered that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the Steele dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie.
New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Elias denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”
“It was not just reporters who asked the Clinton campaign about its role in the Steele dossier. John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was questioned by Congress and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.”
Now the campaign has been officially fined for hiding the funding, but it was crickets on NBC. It was reminiscent of Elias appearing on CNN with its media correspondent Brian Stelter, who also did not think it was relevant to ask Elias why leading journalists accuse him and the campaign of lying to them about their funding of the dossier. Instead, Stelter asked Elias “what should we be doing differently?”
Elias proceeded to chastise the media for not having enough of a “pro-democracy slant.” Just for the record, Elias has previously been sanctioned for his conduct in litigation, has unsuccessfully challenged Republican victories in elections, and recently lost an effort to gerrymander the Maryland voting districts. In the recent Maryland decision, the map pushed by Elias was found to violate the state constitution’s equal protection, free speech and free elections clauses but “subverts the will of those governed.”
In the Todd interview, Clinton states “I’m not quite sure what the disconnect is” between President Biden’s accomplishments and his polling numbers. The same can be said about the interview itself. For many of us we are “not quite sure what the disconnect is” between an interview on how Clinton would handle the next election and how her campaign was just fined for her handling of the last election. This was not some trivial record-keeping violation. This was the concealing of the role of the Clinton campaign in funding and pushing a major scandal — and allegedly lying about that role to reporters.
As NBC proclaims “This is who we are,” it may want to consider who that is in light of the Todd interview.
Trump was right again. The media is corrupt. They are Fake News. They are the Enemy of the People.
Turley says,
“ Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.”
Why would he volunteer such information? As
a lawyer, he would know that nobody is obligated to volunteer anything. Just as anyone from the Trump administration would not be obligated to either.
“Now the campaign has been officially fined for hiding the funding, but it was crickets on NBC.”
It was “crickets” because it was such a minuscule fine. The whole Steele dossier issue is no longer relevant. It’s just fodder for Trump followers to bring more rage into their world. In the same “age of rage” Turley is often presented on mainstream media. Turley loves to engage in his own “age of rage” narratives.
Svelaz says: Turley, Fox, Trump, fascist anyone that dares to stray from the dem narrative, *cut and pasted talking points from the well paid Pravda*. Every day. Ad nauseam. Every. Day. And I am throwing up. Say something new to show you have grown as a person. Read the constitution, troll (likely paid, and if not, then you are a sad sack), and take it literally, law is not an interpretive mental masturbatory exercise.This is a law blog, not a ‘feelings’ blog. You are welcome to share your opinions, but do not state your personal opinions as fact, because it isn’t.
Triggered James, is hyperbolic again.
Notably, James is not providing anything of substantial interest other than whining and complaining. Maybe he should at least try to provide actual relevant discussion.
Svelaz,
Turley rightly complains about the “age of rage” in our media, but he ignores one of the worst rage provocateurs, who happens to be his Fox colleague, Mark Levin. You want rage? Here’s rage:
https://youtu.be/2b7Owc1m3Gg
How could Turley possibly defend not condemning such rage? What would he say to excuse it? All he could claim is that he is *unaware* of Levin’s virulent rhetoric. But who would believe it? Instead, he hopes that no one will confront him about Levin.
Mike
Silberman thinks that he can bully Turley into writing that article.
Like most lefties, Silberman thinks that bullying is an effective communication device.
Monument says:
“Silberman thinks that he can bully Turley into writing that article. Like most lefties, Silberman thinks that bullying is an effective communication device.”
I don’t flatter myself into thinking Turley knows I exist. Don’t coddle Turley. Even if he were aware of my exposing his hypocrisy, I’m sure he can defend himself from my “bullying”! He’s a big boy.
The Washington Post’s recent semi-“mea culpa” tries to explain their failure to cover the Hunter laptop story in 2020, when it broke, as due to their caution that the story might have been factually questionable. In fact, their efforts to hide the story before the election was due to the fact that they knew the story was NOT factually questionable…and it would have damaged their preferred candidate.
Tell, us, please, WHEN Fox ever corrected any of the lies it has put out, including the Big Lie? The WaPo corrected its statement, which is intellectually honest. Fox never has, and neither has Turley. Has he corrected the piece in which he claimed that the reason the Manhattan DA’s two special counsels resigned was because it found no proof of Trump’s criminality, when, in fact, they were frustrated that the Manhattan DA wasn’t going after Trump enough for the crimes he committed, according to them, beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Clinton states ‘I’m not quite sure what the disconnect is’ between President Biden’s accomplishments and his polling numbers.”
That “disconnect” is her delusion that “Biden’s accomplishments” actually exist. Unless one considers the destruction of a country’s economy an “accomplishment.”
Memo to Chuck Todd: please keep doing what you are doing. It is working swell! At this rate, Joe Biden may take the title away from Hitlery as to the most hated person in America. Arrogance does that. Full steam ahead, Chucky! Ignore the cliff. It is a lovely view down below.
Marist is the second pollster this week to find Biden’s job-approval rating below 40 percent:
…..
Marist National Poll: Biden Job Approval Rating, March 31, 2022
Biden Job Approval Rating Down to 39%, Democratic Base Fractured
President Joe Biden’s post-State of the Union job approval rating bounce has come back down. 39% of Americans approve of the job President Biden is doing in office, down from 47% immediately following his address. Biden’s current job approval rating is identical to the score he received in February and matches his lowest since taking office. A majority of Americans (54%) currently disapprove of the president’s job performance. The decline in Biden’s approval rating is due largely to his Democratic base. More than one in five Democrats (21%) now say they disapprove of how Biden is doing, more than twice the proportion of Democrats (9%) who had this view in early March after the State of the Union.
https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/marist-national-poll-biden-job-approval-rating-march-31-2022/
Professor Turley, WE know who they are and they have no shame. They have trashed journalism to the point that a majority of the country don’t even believe them any more. Now you have to look all over the internet to get various stories and then piece them together to get some coherence as to what it means. Your best bet are local newspapers, but not Gannet, which is the same everywhere. Or local newscasts but even there they start to parrot their affiliated NBC, ABC, or CBS. Of course we could could be like the UK where you have to pay a fee for the BBC whether you want to or not and get the official left wing perspective. Our local paper was once quite could but was then bough by Gannett and it has shrunk to the size of a mediocre comic book and the writing is just as bad and minimal local stories. Useless.
But, but, but whatabout FoxNews? Not only have they been right about the Trump/Russia collusion hoax and the Hunter Biden laptop, there would have been no election disputes had the the Leftist propaganda whores not buried these national security stories. Instead, we have a national disaster living in the White House, and the useful idiots are alarmed by the lack of coverage over a defamation lawsuit. Nero, meet fiddle.
Fox News was the first to call Arizona for Biden. They also pushed the ridiculous Covid narrative. They are just as corrupt as the rest of the MSM.
I like Fox very much but their political department stinks. They always have the worst polls for Republicans and they did call AZ first and FL last in 2020. Chris Stirewalt was awful and I am thankful that he was let go. Also glad Chris Wallace is gone.
Bret Beir has the best show on television right now, honest, fair, slight lean to the right, but very slight and a decent panel discussion for about 10 minutes every night. The panel has three people and it is almost always 2 right and 1 left person and it is fun when the lefty is a moron like Juan Williams or Leslie Marshall because they are made to look like the partisan lightweight hacks that they are. Some on the left are better, people like Harold Ford and Maura Liasson, two lefties that will at least admit when Biden is doing something stupid. With Juan and Leslie they will even try (lamely) to defend the border issue as they try to blame it on Congress, or gas prices which are of course Putin’s fault, even thought they began rising the day the idiot took office and did the Executive Ordering that has ruined the country.
Anonymous says:
“Fox News was the first to call Arizona for Biden. They also pushed the ridiculous Covid narrative. They are just as corrupt as the rest of the MSM.”
Sounds like you are a Newsmax watcher or perhaps One America News Network. Those networks agree with you that Fox is part of the the MSM.
Olly,
I’m guessing your last swipe was directed at me. Since you purport yourself to be a man of military honor, you should know better than to attack a foe with his back turned to you. It’s not kosher. If you have some criticism of me, say it to my face, not behind my back.
Be a man.
“But, but, but whatabout FoxNews? Not only have they been right about the Trump/Russia collusion hoax and the Hunter Biden laptop, there would have been no election disputes had the the Leftist propaganda whores not buried these national security stories.”
What is wrong with what was said?
You insult Turley daily. Be a man and confront him to his face. His email is readily available.
Turley can respond to my criticism anytime he wishes. If he does not read his own blog, that only proves he does not appreciate our contributions yet he invites our participation and trumpets how popular his blog is.
You don’t think he bothers to read our comments?
He doesn’t have the time to read all the comments. He has a life. You don’t. Worse, you have access to his email, but you are too scared to make your comments directly to his face.
Ego much? If you perceive my comment to be directed at you, then own it and address the substance of it. Prowling for comments, only to be butthurt by them, is not me attacking you behind your back. It’s you bending over and backing into it.
Take it like a man.
Olly,
Don’t lie. You damn well know I am the only person here who upbraids Turley for ignoring the progress of the defamation lawsuits against Fox!
But is afraid to do it to his face by email which is easily available.
Nope. Your JT/FoxNews/Trumpsters OCD is an embarrassing reflection of the Left’s desperation to deflect attention away from the national security disaster they put in the White House. Combine that with your NPD and you become a gnat-swarm of one. Keep fiddling, no one, especially JT is listening.
It’s Trumpists, not Trumpsters. I am no less determined to expose the hypocrisy of Turley and the false narratives of Fox News than Turley is determined to do the same with regard to CNN and MSNBC. Call it what you will. Time and again, I have conceded that Turley himself is oblivious to our contributions, but I can’t be sure that no one around him hasn’t picked up a comment or two.
I’ll agree with you that this country would have been better off with Obama than Biden. What this country doesn’t need, however, are more “absurd reality television stars” as Turley dismissed Trump long before he snaked his way to the White House.
Here’s what struck me: Instead, Stelter asked Elias “what should we be doing differently?”
What should WE? He admits they are no longer a news agency but a propaganda unit for the Democrats. They should be forced to display a chyron this station is a news agency of the Democrat party during all broadcasts.
Tone meet deaf. Except I truly believe they know exactly what they are doing. The Clintons are not good people, and it’d be fair at this point to say that at least 98% of what is coming from the American left is disingenuous. Of COURSE it didn’t come up. Come on.
We hear big numbers all the time, we get numb to exactly what they mean.
$5,600,000 is a big number, but if you convert that to billable hours you get 10,000 billable hours, $560/hour. A work year is 2000 hours. We get to, 5 lawyers working full time for a political campaign for an entire year.
This staggering amount of money paid to a law firm screams money laundering. If you or I did that, the govt wouldn’t even do an investigation. They would just indict you, convict you, and put you in jail.
You forgot one thing. If it were you or me, they would manage to get the money back in fines and penalties before tossing us in jail. 🙂
“A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred armed men with guns.” Mario Puzo
Chuck Dodd has had in head in the Clinton’s lap for years, and who in their right mind would watch NBC News.
Ignore the media. Turn them off.
how do I turn on the DOJ…so they prosecute Obvious crimes by Democrats?
Turley says:
“As NBC attracts proclaims “This is who we are,” it may want to consider who that is in light of the Todd interview.”
You too ignore unflattering developments to your network, Jonathan.
You have mentioned just ONCE nearly one year ago the fact that Fix (which pays you to find fault with its media competitors) is being sued for defamation by Smartmatic and Dominion. You buried those two lawsuits for billions of dollars at the end of an article headlined by a relatively insignificant lawsuit brought by the discredited Project Veritas outfit. Since then, you have said nothing about the progress of these huge lawsuits against Fox. “Crickets,” you call it.
https://jonathanturley.org/2021/04/27/project-veritas-sues-cnn-in-latest-media-defamation-lawsuit/
And as everyone here knows, you used to criticize Fox until you sold out to it:
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/03/29/seizing-oligarchs-yachts-is-popular-but-it-may-not-be-legal/comment-page-2/#comments
In its employ, you will NOT dare mention much less object to the rhetoric of your Fox colleague Mark Levin or opine about Tucker Carlson’s false flag conspiracy theory, Patriot Purge,” which induced 3 of your colleagues to abandon Fox on principle. Did you react to their decision to defect to Fox’s media competition? No you did not.
You will forgive me if I see your hypocrisy. And you will remain a hypocrite until you see fit to hold Fox accountable for ignoring newsworthy stories too.
Jeff, Be careful! You are slowly losing it. Take some medication.
What do you prescribe?
Clozapine 900mg. daily
Check
jeffsilberman: As usual, it sounds like you really have no problem with the actual point Turley is making. It’s just that he doesn’t attack every other bad actor doing a similar bad action. Two wrongs not only do not make a right, they do nothing to disprove the original view or advance the discussion.
I agree. Turley points out the hypocrisy in the mainstream media. I simply point out his.
I challenge anyone to prove me wrong by citing one example of Turley criticizing anything Fox or one of its employees has done in the last 2 years. No one has because he hasn’t.
Turley holds himself out as an objective and impartial legal analyst, but he is not. He will not bite the hand that feeds him. I think people should be aware of that fact. Nothing more.
jeffy – anyone with $175 can sue. Just because you are being sued doesn’t mean you are going to lose.
Paul,
When you address me properly, we’ll talk.
jeffy – I address you with love and respect. What else do you respect?
I don’t care WHAT THE MEDIA DOES…I do care that the DOJ is totally Corrupt!
why bother…everyone knows DOJ doesn’t prosecute Democrats…unless they question their own party!
Welcome to FULL FASCISM!
Lefties lie to us, they lie to each other, and they lie to themselves.
Just read a couple of lefty posts on this blog.
Does is really matter what ” Chuckie Baby” says? He is so far to the left his brain can’t handle what the truth is.
Somewhere the ghost of Richard Nixon is shaking his head and wondering what would have happened had he received this type of press coverage
Huck Todd is the dork who called Ferguson, MO “a ghetto”. He don’t know his arse from a hole in the ground.
YOU DO REALIZE she is running, RIGHT? They’ve weakened Trump with lies to a point where they think she has a shot no matter how pathetic she is. So we get another four years of the ugliest nonsense our government has ever produced.