Journalism is facing a crisis of credibility in America, yet all so-called journalists want to do about it is claim President Donald Trump is unfairly attacking them.
A new poll for the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has found that not only do Americans have little confidence in our press institutions, but they have little confidence in what journalists actually do. For example, 60% of those polled (including 54% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans) “believe reporters get paid by their sources sometimes or very often.”
That’s a surprisingly high percentage, and one has to wonder where people are getting that idea, as it’s not a widely reported phenomenon.
Maybe more people are paying attention than we think. There is a looming scandal in American journalism. Court documents relating to an investigation by the House Intelligence Committee into Fusion GPS — the opposition firm responsible for the uncorroborated “dossier” claiming Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election — revealed the oppo firm paid several journalists who went on to report on the Russia probe.
Court documents from November 2017 reviewed by The Daily Wire include a section about “requested records” of “12 transactions associated with payments to four journalists and/or researchers” and “12 transactions associated with payments from Media Company A.” The names of the company and journalists are not given, and are currently behind a gag order, meaning they cannot be released.
Also in November, my former employer, the Washington Examiner, reported on court documents relating to this same case which mentioned “payments to three journalists between June 2016 until February 2017.”
“The revelation could be a breakthrough for House Republicans, who are exploring whether Fusion GPS used the dossier, which was later criticized for having inaccurate information on Trump, to feed anti-Trump stories to the press during and after the presidential campaign. The three journalists who were paid by Fusion GPS are known to have reported on ‘Russia issues relevant to [the committee’s] investigation,’ the House Intelligence Committee said in a court filing,” the Examiner reported.
Fusion GPS denied that the journalists were paid to write stories for the firm, saying instead it paid them for research.
“Fusion GPS is a research firm set up by former investigative journalists,” Fusion GPS lawyer Josh Levy told the Examiner. “As such, it sometimes works with contractors that have specialized skills seeking public information. Contractors are not permitted to publish any articles based on that work, and Fusion GPS does not pay journalists to write stories.”
Fusion GPS also set up meetings between ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who created the dossier, and media outlets, including Yahoo News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and CNN, as well as a reporter from Mother Jones.
The percentage of Americans who believe journalists are routinely paid by their sources to write articles is one interesting point from the CJR study. The media needs to take a look in the mirror and wonder why, as an institution, Americans distrust it.
Steve Cortes, a contributor to Real Clear Politics and CNN political commentator, recently wrote of three examples of why people should distrust the media, including former RNC chair Michael Steele saying on MSNBC that Trump must have been upset that a mentally disturbed former Coast Guard lieutenant wasn’t able to murder journalists. An MSNBC host said he was “brave” to say so.