WTF MSM!? Setting the narrative before writing the story

This is how it’s done …

Misleading from the start … Last week, the Associated Press published a story about the economic benefits of the Trump tax cuts. The story focused on bonuses and claimed that companies weren’t also raising wages. It was false and misleading. The Boston Globe waited five whole days to publish the article, even though more companies had announced wage increases attributable to the tax cuts in the interim. I covered this bit of #FakeNews in depth at CR this morning.

About that Fusion GPS testimony … The media was quick to paint the testimony by Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson before the Senate intelligence committee as a good thing for those who believe Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the election. National Review’s Andrew C. McCarthy has read the testimony and is blowing up the media narrative. His main thesis:

See, Simpson’s got nothing. Even if we had not learned that the dossier is a partisan opposition-research screed, the Trump–Russia narrative it spouts is a house of cards. But here’s the thing: Good investigative journalists who dabble in partisan politics can be great at making nothing look like something.

But once again, the media has seized on a narrative and will protect it at all costs.

Uranium One indictment … Were you aware that the Department of Justice has secured a new indictment, on bribery charges, against someone in the DOJ probe of the Clinton-linked Uranium One scandal? It happened Friday, but you wouldn’t know it if you only got your news from network newscasts. NewsBusters explains how the networks completely ignored the damning news.

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Umm …

North Korea fake missile warning … A few days after a similar incident in Hawaii, Japan’s national public broadcaster, NHK, sent a text message warning about a North Korean ballistic missile launch. Like the Hawaiian incident, the alert turned out to be false. That’s an eerie coincidence, at the least. Oh, and about that Hawaiian incident: It looks like a password to an internal Hawaii EMA application may have been compromised. A spokesman from the agency confirmed that yes, it was a valid password written on a sticky note, but says the password was not to the system that sends text alerts.

Isn’t it the DOJ? … Today the Department of Justice released a report that said three-quarters of international terror convicts are foreign-born. To The Hill, that fact was provided by the “Trump team.” The Hill didn’t even say the Trump administration, or Trump’s DOJ. No, they said the “Trump team.” Would they have called it the “Obama team” when reporting on information put out by the DOJ during that administration? Short answer: It’s doubtful.

Editor's note: This article originally stated that the password to the EMA's computer system may have been "password." This has been corrected. CR regrets the error. In addition, this article has been updated to include a later statement from the Hawaii EMA that the compromised password was not for the emergency text system but for an internal EMA application.

I’m not Hawaii …

Unlike the Hawaiian government, I can’t send this email to everybody in a state with the mistaken push of a button. That’s why I need your help. If you’ve been enjoying this newsletter, can I ask a quick favor? Please let others know! Send your friends – and even your enemies – over to the WTF MSM!? email signup page. Second, email me at reno@conservativereview.com with anything questionable you see the media do. Together, we can fight back.