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Opinion A plea to the media: Stop regurgitating anonymous GOP attacks
The attacks on Cassidy Hutchinson have been from unnamed sources not under oath.
Link to tweet
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/30/media-anonymous-attacks-jan-6-hearing-cassidy-hutchinson/
After Hutchinson’s devastating testimony, numerous media outlets — including The Post — also reported Tuesday afternoon that unnamed sources at the U.S. Secret Service claimed agents in Trump’s vehicle would dispute her account that Trump assaulted an agent or grabbed the steering wheel after being told that he couldn’t go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Certainly the House Jan. 6 Select Committee should hear from all relevant witnesses under oath. But Bobby Engel, the head of the president’s protective detail who was in the car at the time, had already spoken at length to the committee. He confirmed the gravamen of her account — that Trump was irate about not be able to going to the Capitol.
The media lack any basis to parse Hutchinson’s claim that Trump lunged toward the agent, which might not mean that Trump assaulted him, as the Secret Service sources put it. The Post’s Carol D. Leonnig also provided the desperately needed context Tuesday evening that many Secret Service agents, including Engel, “are viewed as being aligned with Donald Trump.”.....
Creating a false equivalence between detailed testimony under oath and an anonymous source vouching for Trump is misleading at best and at worse serves the Trump camp’s disinformation machine. Be prepared for more of this kind of frenzied chatter as the mainstream media fall back into bad habits — repeating Trump’s lies, shrugging at the mind-bending complicity of GOP officials such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and treating statements from known Republican dissemblers as equally credible as those with no motive to lie and no history of disinformation.
The media would better serve the public if it followed two rules: First, unless they have new factual information that meet the standards for anonymous sourcing, respectable publications should not afford anonymity to those offering takes from Trump’s camp. Second, if a source is going to contest testimony under oath, the outlet should determine if the source already met with the Jan. 6 committee and consider the credibility and relevance of the source’s story (or testimony).
Certainly the House Jan. 6 Select Committee should hear from all relevant witnesses under oath. But Bobby Engel, the head of the president’s protective detail who was in the car at the time, had already spoken at length to the committee. He confirmed the gravamen of her account — that Trump was irate about not be able to going to the Capitol.
The media lack any basis to parse Hutchinson’s claim that Trump lunged toward the agent, which might not mean that Trump assaulted him, as the Secret Service sources put it. The Post’s Carol D. Leonnig also provided the desperately needed context Tuesday evening that many Secret Service agents, including Engel, “are viewed as being aligned with Donald Trump.”.....
Creating a false equivalence between detailed testimony under oath and an anonymous source vouching for Trump is misleading at best and at worse serves the Trump camp’s disinformation machine. Be prepared for more of this kind of frenzied chatter as the mainstream media fall back into bad habits — repeating Trump’s lies, shrugging at the mind-bending complicity of GOP officials such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and treating statements from known Republican dissemblers as equally credible as those with no motive to lie and no history of disinformation.
The media would better serve the public if it followed two rules: First, unless they have new factual information that meet the standards for anonymous sourcing, respectable publications should not afford anonymity to those offering takes from Trump’s camp. Second, if a source is going to contest testimony under oath, the outlet should determine if the source already met with the Jan. 6 committee and consider the credibility and relevance of the source’s story (or testimony).
