Adam Goldman was one of the national security establishment’s go-to reporters for promotion of the Russia hoax. Indeed, Goldman “was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Russia’s meddling in the presidential election.” That’s the way the Times puts it. Those of us who don’t only get our news from the Times now know that it was the FBI more than any foreign government that meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
Today Goldman channels the FBI’s response to the exposure of its role in the Twitter Files. With Alan Feuer, Goldman gives us the “Republicans pounce” variations in “Republicans Step Up Attacks on F.B.I. as It Investigates Trump.”
How bad is it? The story is so bad it has been picked up by the Star Tribune, which of course has yet to inform its readers of the Twitter Files revelations. Goldman and Feuer refer indirectly to the Twitter Files in their mention of one prong of the suspended FBI whistleblowers’ letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and a long report issued by Republican House Judiciary Committee staff:
A majority of the attacks laid out in the Suspendables’ letter to Mr. Wray, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, echoed those by the Judiciary Committee. The panel’s report also condemned the bureau for using counterterrorism tactics to investigate conservative parents at school board meetings — an allegation that seemed to have come from a mischaracterization of the F.B.I.’s plan to track threats of violence against school board officials.
The report further accused the agency of “helping Big Tech to censor Americans’ political speech” — a claim that misrepresented the way the F.B.I. has sought for years to curb online disinformation, especially when it comes from foreign actors. Long before the House report or the letter to Mr. Wray was released, Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress and the news media were already targeting federal law enforcement officers and demonizing those who scrutinized the former president.
Pity the poor readers who get their news from the Times and the Star Tribune. What is that bit about Big Tech censorship all about? Goldman and Feuer simply proceed directly to the FBI’s line while sparing readers any account of the underlying facts or evidence that elicited it from the FBI. Goldman and Feuer simply mainline the FBI drivel.
I documented the Star Tribune’s noncoverage of the Twitter Files earlier this week in part 2 of my footnotes. The Star Tribune’s publication and promotion of the Goldman/Feuer Times story fills out the picture nicely.
Donald Trump's supporters — among them, Republicans poised to take over the House next month — have stepped up their attacks on the FBI, seeking to undermine the bureau just as it has assumed the lead in an array of investigations of Trump. https://t.co/PI4sWCjw3X
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) December 28, 2022
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