Gareth Porter on the Journalistic Malpractice of Charlie Savage and the New York Times

Scott and Gareth Porter discuss Charlie Savage’s shameful reporting on the recent Russian bounties story. In this case Savage, whom Scott and Porter actually regard as one of the better journalists at the New York Times, published a story laying out the allegations from the CIA, but without corroborating them. Scott views this as journalistic malpractice of the greatest degree, since the Times story led the way for all the other major outlets to start reporting on it as though the scandal were a well-established fact. In reality, of course, none of America’s intelligence agencies ever really viewed the information as very credible, and the media has slowly been backing off of the story.

Discussed on the show:

• “Matt Taibbi on the Origins of the Russiagate Hoax” (The Libertarian Institute)
• “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says” (The New York Times)
• “BOUNTYGATE: Scapegoating Systemic Military Failure in Afghanistan” (Consortium News)
• “How the Pentagon Failed to Sell Afghan Government’s Bunk ‘Bountygate’ Story to US Intelligence Agencies ” (The Grayzone)
• “NSA Differed From CIA, Others on Russia Bounty Intelligence” (WSJ)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state, and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

8/21/20 Gareth Porter on the Journalistic Malpractice of Charlie Savage and the New York Times