Politics

Giuliani demands answers after NY Times, WaPo, NBC retract false claim FBI warned him on Russia

May 2, 2021 | | Print Article

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The Washington Post and The New York Times, two prominent newspapers that were among a whole host of outlets that had amplified the Russian collusion delusion hoax and conspiracy theory against former President Donald Trump, have once again published Trump-related fake news.

On Thursday, both papers published scoops claiming Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani was alerted by federal authorities in late 2019 that he was the target of a Russian influence operation against then-GOP presidential candidate Joe Biden.

It’s since been discovered that the scoops were fake news — and Giuliani is now demanding some answers:

“The warning was part of an extensive effort by the bureau to alert members of Congress and at least one conservative media outlet, One America News, that they faced a risk of being used to further Russia’s attempt to influence the election’s outcome,” the Post originally reported, as seen in an archived copy here.

The left-wing paper cited “several current and former U.S. officials,” all of them anonymous, as usual.

Like the Post, the Times also cited anonymous sources in its original report.

“The FBI stepped up its warnings about Russian disinformation before the 2020 election, including giving a defensive briefing to Mr. Giuliani, cautioning him that some of the information he was pushing on the Biden family was tainted by Russian intelligence’s efforts to spread disinformation,” the paper claimed, as seen in the screenshot below published by CNN’s Oliver Darcy:

The only difference between the two outlets is that when the Post eventually updated its report with the truth, the paper included a correction so that readers were aware of the update.

“An earlier version of this story, published Thursday, incorrectly reported that One America News was warned by the FBI that it was the target of a Russian influence operation. That version also said the FBI had provided a similar warning to Rudolph W. Giuliani, which he has since disputed. This version has been corrected to remove assertions that OAN and Giuliani received the warnings,” the correction reads.

The Post also added this paragraph to its original story: “On Friday, following the initial publication of this report, Giuliani denied he was contacted by the FBI about Russia’s disinformation campaign. One America News President Charles Herring said Friday the network was never contacted by the FBI “regarding Ukraine or people associated with Ukraine.”

The Times meanwhile tried to stealth-edit its false report by rewriting the incorrect portions but not publishing a correction to let readers know.

When called out by Darcy, a spokesperson for the paper claimed, “We decided to update the story as quickly as possible to stop perpetuating the incorrect information while we reviewed correction language.”

“An earlier version of this article misstated whether Rudolph W. Giuliani received a formal warning from the F.B.I. about Russian disinformation. Mr. Giuliani did not receive such a so-called defensive briefing,” the since-published correction reads.

It’s not clear why the Times required so much time to write this fairly small 31-word correction.

According to Darcy, NBC News also shared the false story, though in fairness to the network, it provided the most in-depth correction.

“An earlier version of this article included an incorrect report that Rudolph Giuliani had received a defensive briefing from the FBI in 2019 warning him that he was being targeted by a Russian influence operation. The report was based on a source familiar with the matter,” the correction reads.

“[B]ut a second source now says the briefing was only prepared for Giuliani and not delivered to him, in part over concerns it might complicate the criminal investigation of Giuliani. As a result, the premise and headline of the article below have been changed to reflect the corrected information.”

In summary, neither Giuliani nor OAN were ever warned about a Russian influence operation. However, the FBI had reportedly “prepared” to warn them but ultimately chosen not to go through with it.

Meanwhile on social media, all three outlets — the Post, the Times and NBC News — are being bashed for their shoddy reporting, sometimes even by Trump/Giuliani-hating leftists.

Look:

While it’s true that Fox News sometimes makes mistakes as well, the list of mistakes made by the mainstream press — particularly mistakes that portray Trump and his allies in a negative light — is quite extensive.

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Vivek Saxena
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