Thread

We need fact checks. But it’s a problem when wrong or unverified claims aren’t checked from one side of the aisle.

Case in point: the “Russian bounties” theory that was recently dashed. MANY people were pushing this allegation.

So will we get a followup @MaddowBlog?

For those not familiar, @nytimes broke a story a few months back about Russia paying bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops, with Trump turning a blind eye.

That would be an an enormous, awful story, worthy of outrage.

Problem is, there’s no evidence to support it. @NBCNews

It’s hard to overstate how widely circulated this original story from @nytimes was, or how frequently the Times doubled down on it.

2 months of investigation from the military, who vowed to get to the bottom of up, turned up empty.

Not a word of followup.

Of course, @nytimes wasn’t alone. Plenty of other outlets picked up the reporting - which @realDonaldTrump called “fake news” and which many conservatives and others pushed back on as thinly sourced at best.

Here’s @CNN, featuring @SenGillibrand.

They - and others we’ll see soon - got their key spokespeople involved too. Here’s @brianstelter with a thread.

Same thing for @jaketapper.

@MSNBC as ever was a big contributor. They also featured plenty of others pushing their narrative, like:

Susan Rice (figures)
@maddow
@SteveSchmidtSES (also figures)
@ChrisMurphyCT

This of course included the most outspoken of left-wing conspiratorialists, @JoyAnnReid.

@Newsweek also decided to go full out on this one.

The very thought that these were just allegations was dropped from their coverage. The coverage of these unverified claims takes them as a given.

See how a narrative develops?

And @washingtonpost reminds us why “news analysis” is the bane of my existence.

And the Democrats from all over got involved in the act. Here’s the lead on legislation for an investigation into the unconfirmed reports, @SenDuckworth.

You see, it’s easy to look like the good guy when the narrative is such that these claims - far from proved - are true.

But it wasn’t just her. Here’s @SpeakerPelosi

and it wouldn’t be a potential Russian-related conspiracy theory without @RepAdamSchiff

There were plenty of others, but I’ve only got so much room to work with. Here we’ve got the whole coalition @TheDemCoalition and everyone’s favorite @RepSwalwell

As ever, the bluechecks really outdid themselves on this one. You’ll be not shocked to see @JRubinBlogger going headlong into this one before we’ve found any evidence beyond the Times reporting.

Ditto for @MaxBoot.

Again, these are enormous accusations, with serious international consequences.

We’ve taken them as gospel because of some - you guessed it! - anonymous sources.

More of the same - but a little more egregious, I think - from @joelockhart.

I know I don’t have the space to do it but I couldn’t not double up on @joelockhart

You’ll be shocked to hear that @ProjectLincoln got in on the act.

Obligatory @kurteichenwald mention.

I couldn’t possibly leave @WalshFreedom out of the mix on this one.

Again, righteous indignation comes easy. We should be focused on getting the facts first.

Space and patience are evaporating. Here we’ve got:

@AndrewBatesNC
@Cleavon_MD
@tribelaw
And, of course, @brhodes

And I get it. The absence of evidence isn’t the evidence of absence. These allegations could well prove true - both the Russians and the Taliban being what they are.

But doesn’t it give anyone pause that, after an investigation, there’s been no corroboration of this reporting?

Doesn’t it bother anyone at all that an entire outrage news cycle was whipped up based on one unverified report?

Doesn’t that seem like...not the way things should work? Haven’t we learned a thing or two about trust-but-verify on sensational stories by now?

I’m not some military or intel professional. Maybe there’s a ton that I don’t know & maybe these people know it.

But the rush to conclusion & judgement here was swift, and that just seems all kinds of bad to me.

And I don’t expect any apologies or corrections are forthcoming.

Bonuses I couldn’t fit in the original.

Here’s @clairecmc

Also @funder, swinging for the fences and coming up with nothing but air, as usual.