‘Broadly misleading journalism’ for Steele dossier coverage slammed

Progressive writer Aaron Maté earlier this week slammed the media’s coverage of the debunked allegations that former President Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election, calling the reporting “broadly misleading journalism.”

In a report published Wednesday by RealClearInvestigations, Maté detailed the corrections a number of media outlets were forced to make following the indictment of the Steele dossier’s main source, Igor Danchenko, for allegedly lying to the FBI, and listed five instances of “stories containing false or misleading claims” that he said needed to be either retracted or corrected.

“Five years after the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded collection of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories known as the Steele dossier was published by BuzzFeed, news outlets that amplified its false allegations have suffered major losses of credibility. The recent indictment of the dossier’s main source … has catalyzed a new reckoning,” Maté wrote. 

Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele arrives at the High Court in London on July 24, 2020, to attend  his defamation trial brought by Russian tech entrepreneur Alexej Gubarev. – A Russian tech entrepreneur on Monday began a defamation claim against the British author of a controversial report at the heart of 2016 US election meddling allegations first leaked to BuzzFeed. Alexej Gubarev said in documents released in London’s High Court that former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele was responsible for the US news site’s January 2017 publication of his dossier. (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON POST CORRECTS, REMOVES REPORTING THAT RELIED ON DISCREDITED ANTI-TRUMP STEELE DOSSIER 

He noted that The Washington Post re-edited “at least a dozen stories” relating to former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, and that for two of them, entire sections had to be removed, headlines changed and editor’s notes added.

“But the Post’s response also exhibits the limits of the media’s Steele-induced self-examination,” Maté wrote, noting that neither the reporters nor editors of the two most egregious reports offered an explanation as to how they were “so egregiously misled,” or who the sources were that mislead them for months and years.

FILE – In this May 29, 2019, file photo, Special counsel Robert Mueller speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington, about the Russia investigation. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
(AP Photo)

CNN’S BRIAN STELTER IGNORES WAPO DELETING, CORRECTING REPORTS ON DISCREDITED STEELE DOSSIER ON HIS MEDIA SHOW

“Perhaps more…