Veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward says he tried to warn Washington Post reporters about the infamous, discredited “Steele Dossier” when coverage of Russiagate first began — but a new He was not interested, the report said.
Woodward was among those interviewed at length. Columbia Journalism Review Report This week the media’s handling of unproven allegations that Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election was published.
In the interview, the 79-year-old reporter — best known for breaking Nixon White House scandals for the outlet in the early ’70s — recalled the widely discredited story when it was first published in 2017. How Trump’s Dossier Was Rushed to Slump
Woodward denied the files, which were funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, during an appearance on Fox News in January 2017.
He then reached out to unnamed Washington Post reporters — but claimed they had no interest in his harsh criticism, CJR reports.
“After his remarks on Fox, Woodward said he had ‘reached out to the people who cover it’ at the newspaper, and identified them generally as ‘reporters,’ to say that he was so Why was critical,” writes reporter Jeff Gerth.
“Asked how they reacted, Woodward said: ‘To be honest, there was a lack of curiosity from people. [Washington] Post about what I said, why I said it, and I own it and I didn’t force it on anyone”.
Elsewhere in the CJR report, Woodward also criticized the general media coverage surrounding Russiagate, saying it was “not handled well” and that he believed viewers and readers had been “betrayed”.
“He urged newsrooms to ‘walk the painful road of introspection,'” writes Gerth.
In 2021, The Washington Post took the unusual step of correcting and retracting large sections of two articles that relied on information contained in the Trump assassination dossier.
The outlet’s executive editor, Sally Buzby, said at the time that the newspaper could not stand by the accuracy of its reporting regarding the allegations from a source, which were later contradicted in an indictment handed over to special counsel John Durham.
Many of the details contained in the dossier have since been found to be based on hearsay and speculation.
Among them were claims that Russia had tape of Trump in a Moscow hotel room showing prostitutes urinating on a bed where President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama had previously stayed.
Read full article here