Jake Tapper Unloads On BuzzFeed Ben Over Publishing the Steel Dossier But Doesn’t Tell Him To Learn To Code

Maybe BuzzFeed does have a useful purpose besides posting puzzles and cat videos and providing false hope to SJW “journalists” so they can get fired and be told to learn to code.

One of the continual points of interest in the whole Russia-collusion bullsh** is the close ties between former FBI director and probable felon James Comey and CNN, indeed between the FBI and CNN.

Not only did the FBI obviously tip CNN to the arrest of Roger Stone by a team of no less than 29 heavily armed FBI agents (this for a 67-year-old man with no passport and no history of violence who had an attorney who had been in contact with the US attorney’s office for some time, and no, you don’t have a “hunch” that a flabby, non-hostile person like Stone is going to be arrested by a SWAT team, you have a “tip”), but there is nearly an irrefutable amount of evidence that the FBI and CNN were working hand-in-glove to get the Steele (or Trump) dossier into play.

On April 19, 2018, Comey sat down with Jake Tapper for an extended interview. Part of the subject was how Comey presented the dossier to Trump at that famous meeting in the White House. This next part is from my post What Was the Real Purpose of James Comey Briefing Donald Trump on the Russian Hooker Dossier?

Comey briefs Trump on only part of the dossier:

I did not know this fact that @jaketapper got Comey to reveal: When Comey briefed President-elect Trump on dossier, Comey discussed *only* the sex stuff, not other allegations (Manafort, Cohen, etc) that were also in dossier. https://t.co/YSXW8JpQnH pic.twitter.com/iAGUg7a4Vi

— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 20, 2018

Tapper wonders why they haven’t run the story, and Comey helps him out.

This is correct. Currently, BuzzFeed is in a legal battle that could see it go the way of Gawker over publishing the dossier. Fusion GPS is in legal trouble in Britain for its role in libeling people in the preparation of the dossier. What Comey is saying is that the media want to run the story but they need a reason. What was the reason used to get the dossier into play:

CNN–Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him

The news hook was that Trump had been briefed.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/987299889842356229

Memo: Comey briefed Trump on dossier because CNN was “about to run with it” and was looking for a “news hook.”

-That very same briefing served as the “news hook.”
-BuzzFeed used that news hook as a news hook to publish dossier. https://t.co/BKoStjaQjd @dailycaller

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 20, 2018

This looks like Comey was either played by Clapper, who suggested the meeting, or was complicit in creating a “news hook” for CNN and other outlets. The coincidence of the dossier being discussed, when Trump did not know about it, and the leak of the briefing is too much to overlook.

Then more material became available. In May, Senator Ron Johnson sent this letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray who, apparently, is kept wrapped in duct tape in an undisclosed location.

Senator Ron Johnson letter to the FBI regarding Steele dossier. Explosive new e-mails show FBI brass discussed dossier briefing details with CNN. FBI has a hell of a lot of explaining to do. https://t.co/sOlD7gkiHz pic.twitter.com/cUExt5GmgS

— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) May 22, 2018

This is from Johnson’s letter as quoted in my post How Close Was The Coordination Between The FBI And CNN On Dossier Reporting?

According to documents received by the Committee, the FBI appeared to have had awareness in January 2017 that media outlets had information about the Steele Dossier. It appears that then-FBI Director James Comey briefed then-President-elect Trump about this information, at the request of then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. According to the FBI, CNN then published its article using the President-elect briefing as the “trigger.”

• January 6, 2017, 9:44 a.m. FBI Chief of Staff Jim Rybicki sent an email to unspecified recipients stating, “the director is coming into HQ briefly now for an update from the sensitive matter team.”
• January 6, 2017, afternoon. Director Comey met with President-elect Trump.
• January 7, 2017. Director Comey memorialized his discussion with President-elect Trump via an email to senior FBI leadership.4 Director Comey wrote, “I said there was something that Clapper wanted me to speak to PE [President Elect] about alone or in a very small group.” Director Comey wrote, “I then executed the session exactly as I had planned,” and “I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook.”
• January 8, 2017, 12:08 p.m. Then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe sent an email to senior FBI leadership with the subject line “Flood is coming. “ Mr. McCabe wrote, “CNN is close to going forward with the sensitive story . … The trigger for them [CNN] is they know the material was discussed in the brief and presented in an attachment.”
• January 8, 2017, 12:55 p.m. Mr. McCabe emailed then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and then-Principal Deputy Attorney General Matthew Axelrod with the subject line “News.”9 Mr. McCabe wrote, “Just an FYI, and as expected, it seems CNN is close to running a story about the sensitive reporting.”
• January 10, 2017. CNN published a story entitled “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.” The article explained that the President-elect received the briefing on the contents of the Steele Dossier.
• January 10, 2017, 6:20 p.m. BuzzFeed News published the contents of the Steele Dossier.

Why this background? Because late Friday the Daily Caller published emails between and gritty-crotched Jake Tapper and BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith.

After BuzzFeed published the infamous Steele dossier, CNN anchor Jake Tapper lit into BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith for the decision, calling it “irresponsible” and “uncollegial,” according to emails released Friday.

“I think your move makes the story less serious and credible[.] I think you damaged its impact,” Tapper wrote to Smith on Jan. 10, 2017, just after BuzzFeed published the dossierin full on its website.
…
Tapper was seemingly upset with Smith because shortly before BuzzFeed published the dossier, CNN had reported parts of the document had been briefed to then-President-elect Donald Trump in a meeting with top intelligence community officials Jan. 6, 2017.

CNN did not publish the dossier, but BuzzFeed used CNN’s story as a hook to publish Steele’s 35-page report.

“That was pretty uncollegial[.] Not to mention irresponsible[.] No one has verified this stuff,” Tapper wrote to Smith.

Smith defended his decision, telling Tapper that publishing the dossier “was not an easy call.”

“Collegiality wise it was you stepping on my dick,” Tapper responded.

“You could have waited til morning,” he said.

“Professionally this is unverified info[.] Your guys unlike us don’t even seem to know who the former agent i[s],” added Tapper, seemingly referring to Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier.

Smith rebutted Tapper’s claim, saying “of course” he knew who wrote the dossier.

What CNN seemed to be doing was relying upon the dossier remaining relatively secret while CNN was able to draw all kinds of inferences from it. If no one had access to the dossier then no one could question the speculation CNN generated about the dossier. Once BuzzFeed committed journalism and published the document so the public could judge, the whole sorry tale started falling apart and that shows today in news coverage everywhere but at CNN which is still married to the veracity of those claims. The only way Tapper could be correct in saying, “I think your move makes the story less serious and credible[.] I think you damaged its impact,” is because once people read the dossier they realize just what kind of bullsh** they were dealing with. Running with the story of Trump being briefed about it was a dishonest attempt to take a document that was pretty obviously bogus for the most part and totally unverified (Steele used paid cutouts to interview people who were mostly current and former Russian intelligence officials, he never actually talked to his sources and has no way of knowing if his cutouts talked to them or what they said) and give it credibility by reporting the FBI had briefed Trump on it, when, in fact, they did not brief Trump on anything but the sexcapades parts. Also interesting is that Tapper seems to think the dossier story is CNN’s property by virtue of having it hand-fed to them, or so it seems, by the FBI.

No matter what damage Ben Smith has done to journalism and the general intellectual climate in America, publishing the dossier, whether out of public service or a grab for quick clicks, was critical to letting the nation know what kind of superficial hogwash CNN was fluffing as a big deal.

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