President Donald Trump has officially been inaugurated into his powerful position for the next four years. Despite being upset about the turnout of the election, I am more concerned about the media’s role in all of this. The most recent attack on Trump, this time coming from BuzzFeed News, is a perfect example of poorly handled journalism—and it’s a concern.
Let’s take a step back: On Jan. 10, BuzzFeed News published a 35-page dossier—compiled by, supposedly, a former British Intelligence official—making allegations that President Trump currently has connections with Russia and that the country might even be blackmailing him. The dossier makes the accusation that Trump could henceforth be influenced by the Russian government. These general claims can be found in the summary section of the documents, but the most infamous claim was on the second page, where it states that Trump had rented the Presidential Suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow, where he knew the Obamas had slept before, and then hired prostitutes to pee on the bed. Unsurprisingly, this latter allegation stuck in the minds of readers so much that this entire event was coined the “Golden Shower Gate.”
This dossier leak was inescapable from the news cycle for a couple of days, despite it not being the first time this account had been discussed on a news site. BuzzFeed News had disclaimed that none of the information in the dossier had been verified but that they believed it was in America’s best interest to have access to this unconfirmed information. David Corn, the journalist who wrote about this dossier in October 2016, had tweeted that he did chose to not share the entire document because he could not confirm all the allegations. In a separate tweet, Corn also commented that he did not publish the details because “even Donald Trump deserves journalistic fairness.” In response to critics, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith tweeted his explanation for choosing to publish the entire document. His most daunting defense was that this decision was the website’s way of telling the public that this is how they “see the job of reporters in 2017.”
But how is this unverified news helping anyone? This type of journalism is instead going to hurt any publication’s chances of keeping Trump in check without appearing to be biased. This dossier was conveniently released ten days before his inauguration, and BuzzFeed News’ lazy journalism gives off the impression that this was just their attempt at salacious clickbait. And, undeservedly, other publications have had to clean up the mess.
The day after the dossier leak, Trump had a press conference where he addressed the allegations. He also proceeded to tear down CNN in reference to the new site’s follow-up on BuzzFeed News’ post. In an attempt to defend themselves, CNN reporter Jim Acosta tried to ask Trump a question but was quickly turned down and accused of being fake news.
It’s hard to buy into the well-meaning intentions of BuzzFeed News. If they really wanted the public to be skeptical of Trump’s possible relations with the Russian government, they should have investigated further into the matter (you know, like journalists) and kept out the distracting allegations. Two consequences resulted in how they handled the matter.
Now, there are rumors that the dossier was an invention from the trolling website 4Chan, which—true or not—is humiliating to news organizations and the details to be concerned about are being overshadowed by the “Golden Showers” allegation.
This was the problem the media had last year during the presidential campaign. They put too much focus on his late night Twitter banter and they didn’t give his policies a chance to be deeply dissected. BuzzFeed News’ actions indirectly hurt the left-leaning news publications by making them seem desperate to attack Trump without merit.
Trump and his campaign have made similar unverified allegations in the past.
One example of this occurring was discussed in a Washington Post interview with prominent fake news writer Paul Horner, where it was revealed that Trump’s campaign manager in early 2016 had shared (on a now deleted Twitter post) one of Horner’s stories about someone being paid $3,500 to protest against Trump. News publications cannot stoop to that same level of sharing fake news—even if it’s meant with good intentions. In this sensitive time, it’s up to journalists to strategically choose their battles and to avoid giving the public more reason to not trust the platform that was originally created to release honest, well-researched, intellectual information. Let’s hope that BuzzFeed News learns from their mistake.
