NYT’s Ken Vogel Gets Dragged for Pushing Debunked Joe Biden Ukraine Story
New York Times reporter Ken Vogel is being torn multiple new ones for seeming to suggest that he could make the debunked Joe Biden Ukraine story stick, if only Rudy Giuliani would get out of the way and let it happen.
On Friday afternoon’s edition of MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, Vogel followed a panel discussion of President Donald Trump’s reported attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Biden by claiming that Hunter Biden’s Ukraine activity “is a significant liability for Joe Biden.”
“Like, there is a story here,” Vogel added. “We’ve told some of it. There is more to be told. We are going to continue to sort of pull that back. That said, the way that Rudy is inserting himself into it is both not helpful, I think, to Rudy and to Trump because it kind of jumbles it. He’s getting the facts wrong, and he is making it appear as if this is just a partisan hit job, whereas if he would just kind of leave the reporters to do the work on it, I think that, you know, potentially this story might be taken more seriously.”
But the allegations against Biden have been pretty thoroughly debunked, over and over again, and the story Vogel published in May — which says right in the title that it is being pushed out by ‘Trump and Allies’ — says “No evidence has surfaced that the former vice president intentionally tried to help his son by pressing for the prosecutor general’s dismissal.”
Vogel was lambasted on Twitter by users who saw this as a repeat of the newspaper’s focus on Trump-fed smears like the debunked Hillary Clinton “Uranium One” story.
It’s happening all over again
Peter Schweizer does oppo research funded by conservative interests –> NYT credulously writes it up –> Trump and his allies bully the DOJ into investigating –> Trump claims his opponent is corrupt https://t.co/g0eiFtBhEC
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 2, 2019
“wouldn’t it be great if we did uranium one all over again,” said nobody except the republican party and ken vogel https://t.co/pNcn8nPRSW
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 20, 2019
The best part of this insanity is the reporter basically pleading with Rudy to go silent so he can do the hit job more cleanly. Pretty poor behavior. https://t.co/QLJtea1yuw
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) September 20, 2019
So basically Vogel is saying that if Trump and Rudy would tone it down and not make it so obvious that they are illegally seeking foreign election assistance it would be much easier for the NYT to help them weaponize the disinformation they are trying to spread ? https://t.co/3ocVAQInbB
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 20, 2019
Around this time four years ago, NYT made a huge deal of Uranium One–an ultimately banal story of the sale of equity in a company that owned a company that had a US uranium mine. But you wouldn’t have known it from the Times’s initial bungled reporting. (https://t.co/PaOKbRfFiF) https://t.co/53G5ELz5qV
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) September 20, 2019
Wow. This story was completely debunked. This sounds like Rudy Giuliani. https://t.co/LoYMMAMJVQ
— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) September 20, 2019
Unfortunate. Vogel’s role in the NYT piece is pretty evident, as they slip in a toned done version of Rudy’s conspiracy theory into the Times copy. https://t.co/36ZeUvgZ8A
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 21, 2019
Unreal. The New York Times is UN-REAL. https://t.co/iDru7FDsec
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) September 20, 2019
Reminder: Ken Vogel’s Politico article that started the bogus claim my sister @AlexandraChalup colluded with Ukraine in the 2016 election has been used relentlessly by the Trump clan, far-right media, and Kremlin propaganda to target her — a private citizen and mother of three. https://t.co/4RijtkznuI
— Andrea Chalupa (@AndreaChalupa) September 20, 2019
There isn’t a story there, and Vogel’s helping Trump. This is exactly what Trump wants: a pivot to Biden/Burisma/Ukraine and away from the whistleblower. Besides, the Burisma probe ended before Biden went to Kiev in 2016. It was briefly reopened after Rudy lobbied Lutsenko. https://t.co/qTiW5nrHL7
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) September 20, 2019
Vogel’s own reporting debunks it. “No evidence has surfaced that the former vice president intentionally tried to help his son by pressing for the prosecutor general’s dismissal” https://t.co/DGDWPPqCSJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 20, 2019
Vogel has been peddling GOP hit on Biden for moths. Vogel’s last Ukraine dispatch got demolished by Bloomberg News; https://t.co/vcmVYVw51R
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) September 21, 2019
For most of the non-Ken Vogels in the media, the story here is a potential White House cover-up of a gross abuse of power.
Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.
