By  MATT MARGOLIS
The media conspiracy against Trump became a lot more serious on Monday when the Washington Post retracted its January story claiming that President Donald Trump had pressured Frances Watson, the chief investigator for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to âfind the fraudâ in the 2020 election and said that heâd be a ânational heroâ if he did.
A recording of the call definitively proved that the quotes cited by the Washington Post, and then parroted by other outlets, were never actually said by the president.
But, as Becket Adams explains at the Washington Examiner, âthe Washington Postâs dud of a âbombshellâ isnât even the most scandalous thing about this episode in media malfeasance.â
The most scandalous thing, Adams, argues, is that several different newsrooms âclaimed they independently âconfirmedâ the original âscoopâ with anonymous sources of their own.â
NBC News reported it âconfirmed The Postâs characterization of the Dec. 23 call through a source familiar with the conversation.â
USA Today claimed a âGeorgia official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters confirmed the details of the call.â
ABC News reported: âPresident Donald Trump phoned a chief investigator in Secretary of State Brad Raffenspergerâs office asking the official to âfind the fraudâ and telling this person they would be a ânational heroâ for it, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.â
PBS NewsHour and CNN likewise appeared to claim they independently âconfirmedâ the story through their own anonymous sources.
The Washington Post claimed its quotes were confirmed by an anonymous source, and at least five major news outlets claimed to have independently confirmed that Trump said things he never said. âThe most likely scenario is ABC, the Washington Post, and others talked to the same person or group,â theorizes Adams. âItâs either that or a bunch of people managed somehow to be wrong about a very specific claim, which is highly unlikely.â
Unless, of course, none of these five outlets actually confirmed anything, but merely claimed so. This is possible, but considering the fact that the recording of the call was found in the trash folder of a Georgia state officialâs computer seems to suggest that one or more Georgia state officials conspired to come up with a damaging version of the phone call, leaked the phony details to the media, and then covered up evidence of the actual call.
Regardless of which scenario took place, the implications are bad.
âThe uncomfortable questions we are left with now are: Whom were they all speaking to? How did this person or these persons get the details of Trumpâs private phone call wrong? Are there additional examples of the media reporting bad information provided by anonymous sources we donât know about, merely because thereâs no contradictory audio or video?â writes Adams. âJust how many anonymously sourced stories are fraudulent? If it can happen this easily, who is to say it doesnât happen often? Further, how many of these bogus stories have enjoyed the backing of supposed independent corroboration when, in fact, newsrooms most likely talked to the same person or people?â
President Trump got a lot of flak for calling the media the âenemy of the people.â But it seems like theyâve been doing a good job at proving Trump was right about them.