PBS's Failed Attempt to Cook Up a New Trump Scandal Shows Again How the Media is Worse Than Useless
In Bob Dylan’s criminally overlooked 2003 cinematic masterpiece, “Masked and Anonymous,” a newspaper editor tells a reporter: “I will tell you this, there is a story there… Make something out of it. And if you can't do that, sir, then — make it up!” It’s advice that actual journalists today all too often follow. Sometimes, however, they get caught, as PBS just was. Rick laid out all the ugly details here.
What is noteworthy is that PBS was clearly caught out because it thought it had a sensational story, one so useful to the leftist cause that it just had to be true. Any critical eye it might once have had is long gone, and now PBS and the rest judge stories only on the basis of how bad they make Trump and other patriots look.
In the fake story at hand, not only did the most evil man on earth, Donald Trump, violate the Logan Act by calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and trying to conduct American foreign policy as a private citizen, but during the call, Trump pressured Netanyahu not to conclude a ceasefire until after the election because peace in Gaza would only help Kamala Harris. Why, the self-serving monster! He would rather have innocent people in Gaza die than see his reelection chances suffer!
It was even worse than Trump’s phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy that got him impeached the first time, and PBS ran hard with it, no doubt once again seeing visions of Trump’s political career finally going up in flames. There was just one problem: it was fake news.
When PBS was caught, it was ready with the usual platitudes. Fox News reported Wednesday that "PBS NewsHour" propagandist Judy Woodruff “apologized Wednesday for reporting a story about former President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that both leaders have staunchly denied.” It is good of Woodruff to apologize; usually, her fellow propagandists just plow ahead with their lies, half-truths, and distortions. Woodruff took the unusual step of “expressing regret for reporting this week that in a phone call, Trump urged Netanyahu to delay a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas until after the 2024 presidential election to benefit him politically.”
Woodruff said, "This was a mistake and I apologize for it.” That’s great, really, but where did she get the story, and why did she think it was credible?
She actually addressed those questions to a degree, saying, "I want to clarify my remarks on the PBS News special on Monday night about the ongoing cease fire talks in the Middle East. As I said, this was not based on my original reporting; I was referring to reports I had read, in Axios and Reuters, about former President Trump having spoken to the Israeli Prime Minister. In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn't seen later reporting that both sides denied it." Woodruff didn’t say it, but it was obvious why she had assumed that the story was reliable: it confirmed her preconceived notions about Trump.
Woodruff clearly believes everything her leftist colleagues have been saying about Bad Orange Man all these years, and so she had no problem accepting the idea that wanted the lives of human beings to be sacrificed to his electoral chances. And so on PBS on Monday night, she announced, "The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign."
Related: Hey, Here’s Some Good News: Far-Left Time Magazine Cuts 22 Staffers
Yet Netanyahu’s office immediately denied the report, declaring that it was a “complete lie." At the same time, Trump denied that he had even spoken with Netanyahu, noting that the last time the two had had any contact was in July, when the Israeli prime minister visited Mar-a-Lago.
Trump did say, "I did encourage him to get this over with. You want to get it over with fast. Have victory, get your victory, and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop." This may reflect an insufficient understanding of what Hamas is and what its ultimate goals really are, but it is a very long way from saying, “Conclude a peace agreement so I can win the election in November.”
It looks as if PBS was trying to relive the glory days when Trump was framed for various crimes, convicted in the establishment media, and tried in partisan, viciously biased proceedings that were rigged to ensure an outcome that the Democrats could use politically. And that’s understandable, as those glory days are still going on.
The left still thinks it can destroy the threat of Trump by framing him for some kind of wrongdoing rather than simply by beating him fair and square at the ballot box. That means there will be many more false reports like the one PBS was pushing.
The bottom line is that PBS and its friends and allies in the establishment media are worse than useless. These aren't even close to being news outlets; these are just propaganda organs for the worst elements of the hard left.
It's time to turn them off once and for all, and turn to real news source that will bring you the actual truth — like us here at PJ Media. Join our exclusive VIP club today here and get a massive 60% discount with our FIGHT promo code. The only way to fight the media's relentless propaganda is by knowing the facts. Please join us now in the struggle to get the truth out there.
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