The Press

The media played a significant role in this conspiratorial plan by promoting the "Big Lie" of Trump-Russian collusion.

A full 3 months before the 2016 election a New York Times Editorial by Jim Rutenberg laid out the marching orders for the press and the media at large. He wrote "If you view a Trump presidency as something that's potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you've ever been to being oppositional.". That is to say, shelve your journalistic objectivity and become the opposition. Be part of the "Resistance".

That set the tone and direction of much of the media coverage that happened in the 2016 Presidential election and continues to this day against Conservatives in general.

The media's cover-up and complicit coverage of the Trump-Russia narrative.

More than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation — a claim later undercut when signatories were revealed to be active CIA contractors.

Looking back on the coverage of Trump

Seven and a half years ago, journalism began a tortured dance with Donald Trump, the man who would be the country's forty-fifth president—first dismissing him, then embracing him as a source of ratings and clicks, then going all in on efforts to catalogue Trump as a threat to the country (also a great source of ratings and clicks).

No narrative did more to shape Trump's relations with the press than Russiagate. The story, which included the Steele dossier and the Mueller report among other totemic moments, resulted in Pulitzer Prizes as well as embarrassing retractions and damaged careers. For Trump, the press's pursuit of the Russia story convinced him that any sort of normal relationship with the press was impossible.

For the past year and a half, CJR has been examining the American media's coverage of Trump and Russia in granular detail, and what it means as the country enters a new political cycle. Investigative reporter Jeff Gerth interviewed dozens of people at the center of the story— editors and reporters, Trump himself, and others in his orbit.

The result is an encyclopedic look at one of the most consequential moments in American media history. Gerth's findings aren't always flattering, either for the press or for Trump and his team. Doubtless they'll be debated and maybe even used as ammunition in the ongoing media war being waged in the country. But they are important, and worthy of deep reflection as the campaign for the presidency is about, once again, to begin.

By Kyle Pope, CJR
January 30, 2023