Trump’s Russiagate and the crisis of credibility of the US media

According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism survey 2022), the US media has the lowest credibility, 26% among 46 nations, writes Jeff Gerth.

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On 30 January 2023, the Columbia Fournal Review CJR) published a four-part investigative report on the now debunked Russiagate narrative that suggested Putin's Russian agencies, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, had infiltrated the US and was clandestinely controlling the levers of American power through some combination of sexual and financial blackmail.” CJR is a biannual magazine published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

The report dives deep into several key aspects of Russiagate, also referred to as the Russian collusion controversy. It showed the mirror to American journalism and media, and the look in the mirror wasn’t so pretty. It shows how the press uncritically handled the now discredited Steele dossier, inserted misleading facts, and ignored apparent lacunae in the story to fit their Russia collusion narrative.

The report is the result of painstaking work by Jeff Gerth. The 78-year-old Gerth is a former investigative journalist for the New York Times NYT). He worked for the NYT between 1976 and 2005. He is the recipient of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for covering the American satellite-launch technology to China.

While writing the report, Gerth pored over numerous documents and interviewed several dozen people involved with the Russiagate story. The result is an encyclopedic look at one of the most consequential moments in American media history.”