The Media Research Center’s Trump Regime Media routine on Tulsi Gabbard’s Trump-Russia document drop continued in a July 26 post by intern Matthew Seck, who groused that “MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire dismissed the recent release of documents regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. Instead of actually getting to the root of the issue that the documents were addressing, Lemire decided to call Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s findings a ‘conspiracy theory.’” Seck then demonstrated he was learning well how to be a right-wing propagandist:
According to Lemire, people should instantly discredit the document because Gabbard was simply trying to get “back in [Trump’s] good graces” over falling out from the Iran strike, because somehow that connection makes documents untrue. He then went as far as to say the documents are conspiracy theories. For anyone on Morning Joe to accuse someone else of “carrying water” for a political team creates some unintentional hilarity.
Lemire then failed to cite the actual reason why these reports were so important. The real reason being because they showed Russia wasn’t colluding with Trump, but many news outlets and the Obama administration pushed it out anyway.
During an interview with Newsmax on Friday morning, NewsBusters’s own Curtis Houck described the situation perfectly: “The report that Director Gabbard released goes into detail about what is new, the presidential daily brief, the removal of the admission that Russia’s election meddling effort was to sow chaos, not to benefit one candidate over another.”
Jorge Bonilla cranked up the whining in a July 27 post:
The legacy media continue their five-alarm firefighting of the damning revelations contained within the Russia Hoax document drop, as published by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. ABC’s Jon Karl joins the fray in a wild segment with corporate cousin Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.
Watch as Stephen A. comes on and downplays the severity of the document disclosure while dismissing it as a distraction and bemoaning the sullying of the good name of Barack Hussein Obama[.] […]
If the Chief Political Correspondent of a major network truly went through the DNI disclosures and found “no evidence whatsoever” of altered intelligence in support of the allegations made out by Gabbard, then reasonable individuals are left to assess whether the aforementioned correspondent is being untruthful or lacks reading comprehension. A proper reading of the several post-January 5th documents leave no real alternative but the former. This is mostly what Karl did, in addition to the occasional high-pitched squawking of “TREASON”, as he played straight man to Smith.
What is interesting, as Smith attempts to carve himself out a lane in the pundit sphere, is his full-throated defense of Obama on Disney air. Smith here seems far more concerned with the sullying of the god-king’s name, with utterances more befitting a cleric denouncing blasphemy, than with the very real dangers of weaponized intelligence and with the criminal conspiracy that abused the aforementioned intelligence in order to subvert the peaceful transfer of power. The corporate alignment with the rest of the Obama/Biden sycophant news division is impossible to ignore.
As we’ve previously noted, if responding to the document dump is “firefighting,” that makes Bonilla an arsonist. He served up more arson work, with help from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, later in the day:
Legacy Media have taken a keener interest in firefighting the revelations contained within the Russia Hoax document drop published by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. NBC’s Kristen Welker joined the fray and inadvertently demonstrated why Republicans aren’t usually booked on these segments.
[…]Welker began with a quick Epstein question before pivoting to the Russia Hoax, which mirrors her question on whether the doc drop is a distraction from Epstein. The key element on the legacy media’s handling of the document drop is to depict it as chaff intended to distract from Epstein when, in fact, these things take a while to get going.
Welker attempts to rebut Gabbard’s findings with the 2020 Senate Intel Committee report which Graham rebuts, calling Welker out for omitting a bunch of information after she tried to gotcha him with the findings of the Durham report. Graham brings up several items not previously mentioned on legacy air within this context.
[…]It is after Welker’s last attempt to tie the document drop to Epstein that Graham calls her out for sweeping the document drop “under the rug.” Her engagements with Graham were rebuffed at every corner, proving why Republicans had not yet been booked on the Russia Hoax. Will the legacies try to take another shot or will they limit discussions of the document drop to colleague panels and interviews with Obama funcionaries, if at all? Time will tell.
Bonilla then whined that the obvious point of Gabbard’s document dump being a distraction from a certain other Trump scandal was referenced again:
A weird A-block report on NBC’s Sunday Nightly News makes crystal clear the urgency of narrative for the legacy media. In this instance, a dirty frame sets up a palette cleanser following the lead story- the consequential trade agreement between the United States and Europe announced at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland.
Watch as Sunday anchor Hallie Jackson repurposes the “distraction from Epstein” narrative in order to reclaim viewer focus:
[…]Left unexplained in this microreport: who are the “many Republicans” “accusing the Trump Administration of a coverup”? It is important to specify if this statement is to serve any factual purpose beyond the “many people are saying” rhetorical device through which the media often project their own opinions and ideology into a given story.
Last week’s cycle and this goofy report on the back of a consequential trade deal betray an apparent media willingness to overemphasize all matters pertaining to Epstein in lieu of reporting on other substantial matters (see: Russia Hoax documents). If ever you needed an example of the legacy media’s commitment to anti-reporting: this is it.
Bonilla offers no proof that it’s not a distraction — he’s just mad that this obvious point was discused at all.
An MRC executive ran to the safe space of Newsmax to peddle his approved narrative:
MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider went after the legacy media and the Obama administration Saturday for their outrageous roles in perpetuating the Russia hoax, as revealed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
As recounted by Schneider on Newsmax’s America Right Now, the left continued promoting the Russia hoax even after social media companies had shut down early claims of major election interference. In addition, newly released evidence showed the Obama administration knew of this assessment but abandoned intelligence standards and ignored evidence to push a specific narrative.
As if Schneider is not being (well) paid to push a specific narrative. Speaking of which, Tim Graham served up his version of the narrative in his July 28 podcast:
When the network anchors claim there’s “no evidence” of a Democrat hoax on Trump-Russia collusion, it means they don’t like the evidence. Why can’t they acknowledge facts they don’t like? All three broadcast networks had Sunday hosts “firefighting” Tulsi Gabbard’s document dumps on Obama. MRC’s Sunday-show monitor Jorge Bonilla explains.
Last Sunday, CBS’s Margaret Brennan did it on Face The Nation. The other two hopped on it on Sunday. On This Week, ABC’s Jonathan Karl baldly asserted “The President of the United States accusing Obama of treason. Again, no evidence whatsoever for any of this stuff!” They’re trying to tell the public that there’s nothing to read, don’t look at it!
On many occasions, conservatives wonder why a Republican would subject themselves to harassment by partisan liberal TV hosts. The obvious answer is to offer a strong counter-argument to their so-called “conventional wisdom.”
And, of course, Graham whined that the obvious Epstein distraction was brought up:
On Sunday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Hallie Jackson insisted: “Even overseas, the president cannot escape the firestorm over the Jeffrey Epstein case here at home. Asked about that today and denying trade talks are a way to try to turn the page.”
On Saturday, NPR political analyst Ron Elving promised “right now, Epstein is the one name in the news as often as Trump, and the two are being endlessly linked in story after story, with all those chummy photos from back in the day.” The message? We will endlessly link Trump and Epstein, because we hope to divide Trump’s base and ruin his approval rating.
Like Bonilla, Graham made no effort to disprove that link.