Mainstream media omits coverage of discredited Steele dossier charges
Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz reports on how the Danchenko indictment received little attention from major news organizations on ‘Special Report.'
Substack journalist Matt Taibbi tore into MSNBC star Rachel Maddow for appearing to double down in her Russiagate coverage even as details emerging from the Durham probe continue to undercut the Democrat and media-driven narrative during the Trump administration.
Special Counsel John Durham charged Steele dossier sub-source Igor Danchenko's arrest with five counts of making false statements to the FBI but the indictment also shed light on his ties to Democratic operatives.
Maddow, who became the most prominent TV host to push the Russia collusion narrative, addressed the latest developments in the Durham probe- but seemed to dismiss the severity of the new revelations.
"The indictment in this case tells a story beyond just the charges," Maddow told viewers Thursday night. "It, like the other indictment from John Durham, seems designed to try to further this project of making the Russian investigation itself seem like a scandal."
Rachel Maddow lost to a dozen Fox News programs in the key category, (Photo by Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
After referring to the prior Durham indictment of Democratic attorney Michael Sussmann "weird" and "problematic," Maddow insisted the indictment of Danchenko offers an "unmistakable impression" that it is "designed to smear Christopher Steele's intelligence reports as things that were deliberately made up and concocted by rascally Democrats."
"If the goal here is for this Trump-holdover special prosecutor to try to discredit the whole Russia investigation by arresting various sources for that investigation, to try to discredit the Steele dossier because so many people have been led to think that that's the basis for the whole investigation, to essentially get payback on anyone involved in the Russia investigation no matter how far down the chain, well, what do the actual investigators think about that, the people who actually carried out the Trump Russia investigation itself," Maddow asked.
She then invited former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was famously removed from the Mueller probe after anti-Trump text messages with his lover, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, had surfaced, to weigh in on the Durham indictments.
Strzok began by alleging the targets of the Durham indictments so far are "almost peripheral" to the DOJ's Russia investigation and stressed that lying to the FBI is a "significant, significant crime" but expressed concern of the "backdrop" of the special counsel's investigation.
"So my worry is that as Americans hear this news- they don't really know how the Russian investigation ended, they hear these concerns and they say, ‘Well, there must be a problem.’ And that's being picked up and amplified by people who are seizing on this to say, ‘See the entire effort- everything Mueller did everything the FBI was nonsense, it was bogus. It was based on lies.’ And that just couldn't be further from the truth," Strzok said.
FILE - In this July 12, 2018, file photo, then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Strzok, a former FBI agent who was fired because of derogatory text messages about Donald Trump, writes in a new book that he believes the president has been compromised by Russia. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Maddow went on to accuse Durham of making "uncharged, vague allegations" that Alfa Bank-Trump Organization narrative and the Steele dossier were "deliberate fictions that were knowingly cooked up by bad actors who were all Democrats who were making this stuff up knowing that it was false and giving it to the FBI, knowing it was all made up just to basically implicate the FBI in a dirty trick against Trump."
Strzok agreed, saying the indictments have "subtle dog whistles" to "pro-Trump conspiracy theories."
DURHAM CHARGES FBI SUB-SOURCE WITH FIVE COUNTS OF LYING TO FBI
On Friday, Taibbi offered a blistering response to Maddow's "shocking new low," writing, "With last night's loony response to the indictment of Igor Danchenko, the MSNBC anchor takes a bold leap off the credibility cliff."
"Whatever the category below 'disgraced journalist' is, she entered it with gusto with last night’s performance," Taibbi wrote.
The independent journalist called Russiagate a "sizable boil on the face of American journalism" but that the Danchenko revelations only magnify the "embarrassment" of the profession.
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"Every reporter who touched that allegation should be ashamed, and Rachel is at the front of that huge crowd. Among other things, she emphasized the importance of Steele’s "broader assertions," repeating the claim that the 'Russia regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years,' going so far as to praise Steele for keeping his "head down" and listening to his "deep cover sources" like Danchenko," Taibbi wrote. "Rachel not only isn’t upset, she’s expressing pride in having been burned, and is digging in for more."
Taibbi later pointed out on Twitter, "As one of my subscribers points out, Dan Rather was forced out of television after one error. Now whole networks openly embrace stories like the Steele Dossier even after they’ve been exposed as fakes."