Fox News’ Kevin Corke Falsely Reports BuzzFeed Bombshell Was ‘Single Sourced’
The political media world is literally buzzing over the BuzzFeed News Thursday night bombshell report that President Donald Trump had directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to perjure himself in Congressional testimony about Trump Organization discussions with Russian officials about a Trump Tower Moscow project. If true, this is a felony offense and would be the clearest case of obstruction of justice to date.
Fox News’ has not covered this damaging story to the White House in the same manner as other outlets, evidenced by White House reporter Kevin Corke‘s falsely dismissing it as a “single sourced” report.
Corke reported during America’s Newsroom “for the folks at home that haven’t seen this piece on BuzzFeed, it is single source, and it pains Michael Cohen as a beautiful lawyer who was forced to lie to Congress about then private citizen Trump’s business dealings in Russia,” before promoting Rudy Giuliani’s dismissal.
President Trump apparently was watching Corke’s report, which he tweeted about:
Kevin Corke, @FoxNews “Don’t forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars….” Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019
But Corke’s claim that it was single-sourced isn’t correct. There is some question about the sourcing as the two authors appear to have made differing claims. During an appearance on CNN’s New Day Anthony Cormier was asked if he’d seen the underlying texts, emails and documents supporting his report and said, “No, I’ve not seen it personally, but the folks we have talked to — two officials we have spoken to are fully, 100 percent read-in to that aspect of the special counsel’s investigation.”
But Jason Leopold, who shares a byline with Cormier, appeared on MSNBC and was asked about sourcing by Hallie Jackson, and after hedging a bit, resolved with “I’ll say we’ve seen documents and been briefed.”
Mediaite contacted Leopold after the interview for his response to Cormier’s statement that he hasn’t personally seen the documents cited in their report. He responded with “Yes. Anthony said HE had not personally seen the documents.”
But the Buzzfeed News report makes clear that they are sourcing, at worst second hand, “two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.” They later add “The two law enforcement sources said he had at least 10 face-to-face meetings with Cohen about the deal during the campaign.”
Buzzfeed’s deputy director of breaking news, David Mack, highlighted Corke’s mistaken “single source” report on Twitter, saying:
and here’s @kevincorke falsely telling Fox viewers the BuzzFeed story was “single sourced.” It wasn’t. It has 2 law enforcement officials on the record. There are other sources off the record, per reporter @a_cormier_. Kevin, did you read the story? pic.twitter.com/y8aGqAcgPB
— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 18, 2019
Corke responded, which engendered the following back-and-forth:
The single source was unknown, unnamed LEOs said to be investigating the matter. That is the source of the story. I didn’t say a single person or multiple unnamed, unknown sources of materials that the reporter himself acknowledged he didn’t see himself.
— Kevin Corke (@kevincorke) January 18, 2019
I’m sure your viewers understand the semantic difference there. Also not at all misleading then to pivot directly to Rudy suggesting this is all from Cohen, even though it’s been established it’s not, and then not challenge it at all. But hey you do you.
— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 18, 2019
I reported what he said about the report… but as you say, you do you.
— Kevin Corke (@kevincorke) January 18, 2019
Yes, you did a great job repeating what he said without offering any context that might clear things up for your viewers.
— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 18, 2019
I strongly disagree with your characterization. With literally hours of analysis on this topic to come today, I hardly believe that my 90 seconds failed to provide adequate, relevant information and context… but I will note the feedback.
— Kevin Corke (@kevincorke) January 18, 2019
Corke has been criticized for past promotion of Alt-Right conspiracy theories that he allegedly deleted from Twitter. Writing for the Daily Beast, former Mediate-er Andrew Kirell writes:
Although he’s in a position normally reserved for the most fair-minded reporters, and on-air he presents himself as such, Corke’s personal Twitter feed has often read like an outpost of retweets and supportive commentary for alt-right users and conspiracy-theorist zealots. At one point, he uncritically promoted a gossip-rag claim that Hillary Clinton had bisexual trysts.
Kirell went on to explore Corke’s political past — which is most unique given his role as a straight news reporter for Fox News.
Watch above via Fox News.
