Philippe Reines: Don’t Confuse Buzzfeed ‘Making Some Kind of Mistake’ with a Larger Media Problem
On Fox News Channel’s Media Buzz on Sunday, host Howard Kurtz covered the Buzzfeed debacle extensively, and in the above segment, discussed the wider implications of the story with guests former Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines, and culture editor at The Federalist Emily Jashinsky.
After some opening discussion of the article’s reception, Reines began his take by offering a caveat.
“I am in no way defending this story. Clearly there is something terribly wrong about it,” he said. “I am not defending Jason Leopold, I’ve been on the other side of it.” Reines and Kurtz pointed out that Buzzfeed reporter Jason Leopold had previously “tangled” with Reines, and is “not a liberal.”
“No one should think that he’s some secret shill,” said Reines.
“But look at how this unfolded. Yes, there was breathlessness,” Reines said of the coverage after Buzzfeed’s story broke on Thursday night. “I don’t think breathlessness is confined to non-Fox. I’ve been on Fox at night where suddenly there’s a Daily Caller or a Gateway Pundit piece, where we’re talking about breathlessly, they are thinly sourced, and they are, to be polite, not credible sources.”
He offered a defense of the following day’s coverage as well. “I woke up Friday to what you are talking about: Stories about Jason Leopold’s credibility and background. I think that’s impressive that the other networks did that. And then the minute Mueller said what they said, nobody stuck with their guns. They made it clear it was a mistake.”
“They have been talking about nothing since,” he continued. It is definitely the case that media coverage remained extensive regarding the article after the denial by Mueller’s team. He characterized it as self-flagellating, saying “they have been throwing themselves under the bus since Friday night.”
Reines declined to join in on the media’s own criticism of itself, instead arguing any criticism be reserved solely for Buzzfeed. “Let’s not confuse BuzzFeed making some kind of mistake with a larger ‘the mainstream media is off base’,” he said.
Jashinsky pushed back on that, as she and Kurtz both noted that it was Buzzfeed who first published the Steele dossier.
Jashinsky criticized Buzzfeed’s handling, saying that although they have a good news division, they have demonstrated “they can’t exactly handle it.”
“But at the same time, so have major networks, so have serious major news networks that are more older and traditional than “BuzzFeed,” she said. “So the mainstream media in general has a problem, and it’s not confined to BuzzFeed.”
Kurtz closed the segment saying that “I think we’ve all come out against breathlessness, maybe that’s something we can agree on.”
[Featured image via screengrab]
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