So, this is the state of journalism circa 2018: The Washington Post opposed the release of “the memo.”
Yes, the newspaper which has defined investigative journalism since the days of Woodward & Bernstein, the duo every wannabe investigative reporter has tried to emulate, the newspaper which fought to publish classified information in the Pentagon Papers (as depicted in the hot new movie “The Post”) believes the information in the House Intelligence Committee memo should have been suppressed.
The publication which has become, without irony, at once an unapologetic vessel for the anti-Trump movement and purveyor of the now-infamous subtitle “democracy dies in darkness” is outraged that the memo was declassified and made available to the public.
Roll that around in your head for a moment, and consider the significance of just that one fact. But consider further that Carl Bernstein himself, his brain addled by raging hatred for Trump like so many on the hard left, is among the most vocal of all the establishment journalists suddenly embracing government secrecy under the guise of Trump authoritarianism, saying “We may well have not seen such dark days for American democracy and its institutions since the days of Joe McCarthy,”. Watch:
In their editorial attacking the pending release of the memo last week, The WaPo editorial board attempts to prevaricate by writing “we are not in the business of opposing the release of information of potential public value”…and then goes on to give multiple reasons why it should not be released.
And the Post did so via the usual method employed by the left: attacking and discrediting the messenger while ignoring the plain facts, which put the lie to any remaining shred of doubt about the banana republican use of the most powerful government agencies in the Obama administration to gin up a scandal against their political opposition.
Now, if any of the information in the memo turns out to be untrue, then House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) deserves to be condemned, but to date, the complaints on the left are the usual bromides: the memo presents facts “out of context” or the facts are “not complete” or “we can’t be sure the memo is accurate until we get more information” and on and on.
But let’s remember that one of the major elements cited by WaPo and their brethren in the Trump-hating establishment media in opposing release of the memo was concerns over national security and revelations about intelligence methodology – the same concerns they have minimized or dismissed forever, citing the public’s right to know. But obviously not when it comes to anything which might assist President Trump in any way.
Carl Bernstein
And when it became clear the memo contained nothing which compromised national security or intelligence operations, they simply dropped that complaint and moved on to focus on how the memo was partisan (real shocker there) and how it damages the reputation of the House (first time we can remember WaPo concerns about the House being “tarnished’), as well as the Justice Department and FBI – another concern WaPo ignored or minimized in all their years of investigative journalism – until now.
They have diverted attention from the actual facts in the memo – none of which have been directly disputed – revealing an unambiguous bias and willingness of Obama officials at the highest level to use any means available to fabricate a fanciful or patently false narrative about Trump-Russia collusion, ultimately leading to the appointment of a special counsel despite the absence of any alleged crime.
The tragic point is that WaPo and its similarly Trump-deranged brethren in the swamp media, infuriated beyond measure by the success of this vulgarian in the White House and his rising approval among the American people, can be counted on to oppose Trump at every turn for, as the lawyers like to say, any reason or no reason.
None of this is a surprise to anyone paying attention. But much like Hillary Clinton’s revealing and infamous “deplorables” remark, this is a moment when what we suspected all along is now confirmed beyond doubt right before our eyes. And this reality bites, because in the end, it represents nothing less than an epitaph for the Washington Post we once knew, if not loved.
