The CNN story that cost three people their jobs was not as bad as it sounds.
I know this is not a red hot story, and I don't know why it ever was yesterday, but there is something about all this that is bothering me.
Unlike certain other people at NT who post about such things, I am ready and willing to look a little bit deeper than the latest Trumpish right wing howl of "fake news".
Here are three stories relating to this matter
The first is a Bretibart story that supposedly caused CNN to retract their story and cause the 3 CNN employees to resign.
The second is an article from Bloomberg News from this past January
and the third is a Washington Post story from yesterday.
A CNN reporter wrote a story a couple days ago which alleged two things. That Trump associate Anthony Scaramucci had met with the representative of a Russian investment fund in Davos Switzerland in January, and that the Senate Intelligence Committee was investigating that meeting as part of the Trump/Russia probe.
Breitbart said the story was "fake news" and CNN retracted it and the reporter, editor , and their boss , quit CNN, most likely under duress.
A few quick things about this. CNN does not retract all the substance or elements of the story, but approved the resignations because they say their verification protocols were not maintained.
They could not verify that Scaramucci was under investigation by the SIC, and when that was challenged they had to back down. So far , so fair.
But Breitbart goes on to say that the "meeting" in Davos was not really a meeting.
But it turns out, as Scaramucci told CNN for a quote they buried deep in the piece, the supposed “meeting” was not really a meeting:
Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital, minimized his January meeting with [Kirill] Dmitriev in the resort town of Davos, Switzerland, at the celebrated annual gathering of the World Economic Forum. Scaramucci had met Dmitriev at previous Davos meetings, although at the gathering in January, Scaramucci was expecting to be named White House liaison to the business community.
Frank then wrote that Scaramucci told him in an email that Dmitriev “came over to say hello in a restaurant, and I was cordial. There is nothing there.”
So Breitbart is also accusing CNN of making a meeting out of a friendly hello.
But here is where the Bloomberg story comes in . This is from the Bloomberg article of Jan 17 -
Anthony Scaramucci, aide to President-elect Donald Trump and founder of SkyBridge Capital, discussed possible joint investments in a meeting in Davos with the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund that the U.S. sanctioned in 2015, the fund’s press service said.
The meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion state-run investment vehicle, is the first public contact between the incoming administration and Kremlin-backed business. Trump has suggested he could ease the sanctions on Russia if the Kremlin cooperates on his policy priorities. Scaramucci confirmed the Davos meeting.
The Bloomberg article , contemporary to the time of the meeting , says nothing about a quick hello in a restaurant, it says the two had a meeting where they discussed joint investments.
Breitbart accepts at face value Scaramucci's claim that it was a passing hello in a restaurant. Where is the "proof" of this?
Another line of BS by Breitbart is connecting Elizabeth Warren to the CNN story. Elizabeth Warren is not on the Senate Intelligence Committee. What she is doing in this story is anybody's guess, other than to assume Breitbart wants to use her as a punching bag.
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I think CNN should have stood up for themselves more on this. There may have been a mistake about the committee investigation, but it is not the fake news extravaganza the right is drumbeating on.
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They didn't retract the story because they are ashamed of their slimy yellow journalism it was because they didn't want to pay the price.
Dean, on January 17th, Bloomberg published a story stating that Scarmucci met with the Russian in Switzerland and they discussed investments. The Bloomberg story even mentions sanctions.
Did Scaramucci threaten to sue Bloomberg for 100 million?
Even CNN admits it was a ‘lapse in editorial standards’.
Wait. They have standards?
Why didn't Scaramucci threaten Bloomberg with a lawsuit back in January?